


Les Âmes Soeurs

by AnniKay



Series: French Lessons [5]
Category: Glee
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-19
Updated: 2015-10-14
Packaged: 2018-03-08 04:33:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 226,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3195485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnniKay/pseuds/AnniKay
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The gang has moved to New York. College and career are on the horizon…Are the Original New Directions ready for what all the future holds?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I took the entire month of December off to recharge the batteries. All I did was do the background research and figure out some of the plot points. My lack of posting has nothing at all to do with my betas; their turnaround was stellar as always.  
> Special thanks to KayBee80 & Illiandyanndra who have been Beta rock stars for all of my ten stories  
> Fashions & Face Claim Photos available at Illy & my Yahoo group.  
> https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/IllyandAnni/info

Can’t Hold Us (Macklemore)  
Puck PoV

Our first Labor Day all on our own was all kinds of cool. In an effort to get to know our tenants and because it was hot and it seemed like a good idea at the time, the eight of us decided to have a barbeque. Mills had done a great job filling the downstairs apartments so we had four people relying on us and only knew one of them even close to well. In the fully empty apartment, she had placed a psychology grad student from CUNY and a law student from NYU. She had even managed to find Ryan a roommate before he finished fully unpacking his stuff. His free bedroom was filled with a NYADA sophomore who had moved in the Saturday morning before the holiday. The BBQ was actually not a bad idea. The place was already set up for us to do stuff in the backyard all four units shared. Kurt had the builders create a nice patio space, he hadn’t gone all crazy and decked the thing out with an outdoor kitchen or anything extreme, but it had plenty of space for grilling and lounging. 

Saturday afternoon, while Sexy Mama was getting her new weave put in, Sam, Anderson and I borrowed Sexy Mama’s Tahoe and drove to a Home Depot on the upper west side. After some arguing and picking apart the different features of the ones they had in stock, we ended up picking out a bomb ass Weber propane grill. Sam also grabbed a largish charcoal grill, because according to him hot dogs just weren’t the same off the propane grill. Anderson made sure that we grabbed two of the propane tanks and a big ass bag of charcoal and some lighter fluid. We also grabbed some really cool grilling tools. We might have gone a little overboard; probably we didn’t really need a different set for each of us. 

While the three of us were at Home Depot, Artie had dragged Satan and Brittany to Best Buy. He was determined to make our cookout the certified, bonified and total shit. The next day, Kurt and Sexy Mama were just as resolute in their pursuit of the same goal; they were just going at it from a different angle. As soon as we’d all agreed that we wanted to do the whole Labor Day barbeque thing, the two of them had immediately decided that they were in charge of buying all the food. We wanted to do the thang right, but we also didn’t want to blow through the all food the parents had bought us before they left the week before. So each of the eight of us chipped in a hundred bucks, fifty for specifically for the meats for our simkhe, and the rest to go for all the other food crap they started planning. Blaine just waited until they finally started winding down on their reenactment of the planning of the Tet Offensive and asked politely that Mercedes make some of Angel Mom’s shrimp salad. I knew I liked Anderson…stupid first name or not. 

Since a second Home Depot expedition demanded the space of the Tahoe, and Art-man was adamant that he still needed the Cayenne to get the right set up for the back yard --plus Satan really didn’t let anyone else drive it. Not that I blamed her; it was a Porsche. Cede and Fairy took advantage of the fact that Uncle Saul had added her, Sammyboy and myself to his zip car account. Apparently since NYC has some of the best food shopping in the world, Cede and her bestie did that shit up HUGE. What they called grocery shopping did not resemble what I called grocery shopping in any shape form or fashion. They didn’t hit one store and get everything in one stop like I would have. They didn’t hit a big box store and a grocery store like Mom would have. No, not Sexy Mama and Hummer, that would be silly. Instead they actually woke up at the ass crack of dawn and went to some special produce market. Then a special seafood market, on the way home they stopped in at a kosher butcher and got all the beef and chicken and a normal butcher for the pork. After they got all of that they came home, put it all away in the fridges, they headed back out and went to some specialty spice market they had seen on Food Network or something. After that they finally made it to a store with a name I actually recognized, Super Target. There they got all the stuff the toi-toi places they had been all morning would never carry; chips and sodas and ice cream and shit that made working out worth it. 

My jaw actually hit the floor when I saw how much stuff they had gotten. First of all, I never thought you could get that much fresh fruits, vegetables and meats in Manhattan for eight hundred bucks, let alone all the rest of the food stuff. Second of all, I thought we were just having a little barbeque. When I said as much to Babygirl, she smiled at me and laughed. “Boo…you do know that we’re about to enter the busiest time in our lives, don't you? Anything that you and the guys grill up that we don’t eat is gonna get frozen and we can have it for dinner later on when we have no time to cook. As for the sides, the freezable ones…we’ll make twice as much as we need and freeze half. That’s the reason we shopped the way we did…so we could get as much as possible for our money. For the next month or two we’re going to be running crazy between school, meetings, getting the album recorded…and whatever else God decides to toss in to our path.”

“True, true.” I agreed pulling her into my arms. “Artie still gonna work with Tana for our background vocals?” I asked quietly. Mr. Cohen was cool with us using our friends and paying them like regular background artists, but Artie was having a hard time with the thought of taking money for what he saw as ‘helping his friends’. 

She nodded, her face burrowing into my pecs. “Yeah. I was finally able to convince him that being able to say he did professional behind the scenes work could only help him later, and since we are using one of the Warner studios, even it if it is off site he might still make some good connections. They say in the movie business, it’s as much who you know as what you can do.”

“Gotcha, play the ‘think about the future’ angle.” I teased her a little. 

That must have struck a little bit of a nerve because she popped my back. “Stop that. Don’t act like I’m manipulating our friend just to make our lives easier.” 

“No, not just…” I laughed at the look on her face when she tilted her head back to glare at me. “You know I’m just playing.”

“Yeah, yeah…alright, I’d better get to work. You’d better shoo before I find something better for you to do other than torturing me.” she teasingly chided. 

“Babygirl, you know you don’t even have to ask.” I ran over to the sink and washed my hands, came back and dropped a kiss to the top of her head before asking her what she wanted me to do. 

Since I had volunteered, Cede wasted no time at all in putting me to work. Kurt joined us and while we started working on the marinades for the meats, he started peeling and slicing and dicing for some of the side dishes. In pretty short order we had the beef ribs marinating in one thing, the T-bones in something else, the sirloins in a different concoction, the chicken bone in pieces and wings in something else, the chicken breasts in something, the big ass shrimp in one mixture and finally the salmon fillets in some lemon, herb, olive oil deal. The pork ribs just got a dry rub. Sexy Mama didn’t use any of those bottle marinades either. She made all that shit herself. Once all of the meats were soaking and in the fridge, Cede directed me on how to boil the small shrimp for the Angel Mom salad. The three of us were talking and laughing. Hummer isn’t so bad now that I know him and realized that he can’t really help himself for dressing so damn prissy. He’s just got a border line OCD or something. I will say that I don’t think that I ever realized how much he knew about Cede, Sam and my sex life. Apparently, Sexy Mama knew just as much about his and Anderson’s so I guess it was a bestie thing. 

“Hey, how come girls can talk among themselves all about what goes down in the bedroom with their significant others, but when guys do it we get told off.” I asked curiously. 

“Probably because the insecurities women have won’t allow them to be sure that their guys are bragging on them, not slamming them.” Santana said as she came in carrying some big ass Party City bags. “I got some ‘we don’t give a fuck’ dishes. Puck, there is more shit in the Cayenne.” She tossed me the keys, “go get it while Britts and I start washing all this shit so we can use it tomorrow.”

“Good looking out.” Cedes threw them both big smiles. “That way we won’t end up dragging our good serving dishes and stuff outside.”

“Yup, got paper plates and stuff too. There will be no real dishes or glasses out on the patio.” Santana growled. “Ain’t been here but a hot minute. It is way too early to be breakin’ shit. Puck, you might wanna grab Trouty and one of the other guys too. There are some folding tables and chairs. Brittany wanted to make sure that we had enough places for people to sit.”

“Sam and Blaine are both out back helping Artie setup the sound system. We were all wondering where the two of you had disappeared to.” Kurt pointed out as he replaced the fully cooked shrimp with eggs that needed to be boiled on the stove. “Artie will probably thank you for getting them out of his hair.”

“See, you have plenty of help.” Santana told us as she started taking the labels off all the plastic dishware. “Oh and Ben’s friends Sam and Sock decided to surprise him since they had the long weekend off. He wanted to know if it would be okay with us if he brought them along. Plus, Jon wants to know if it's okay if he brings his girlfriend Mallory?” 

“I’m good with that.” Sexy Mama nodded. “We’re all booed up, no reason to exclude Jonathan’s honey. And of course Ben can bring his friends. He wouldn’t come otherwise and this is about getting to know them.

Kurt agreed too. Santana didn’t even try to see if I had an objection and I knew she wouldn’t say a thing to Anderson, Art-man or Sam…for something like that she wouldn’t count our opinions anyway unless we had a major problem with something. “I forgot to tell you guys. Ben offered to provide us with alcoholic refreshments for the barbeque.” 

“Uncle Saul made the same offer before he and Mills decided to go up to the Hamptons with Neil and Jarrard. Granted, he said he’d get us one beer each and a couple of bottles of wine. But still the offer was made. Something tells me that’s not what Ben means.”

“No.” Kurt shook his head. “He mentioned making Mai Tais or Pina Coladas or Sangria.”   
Cede worried her bottom lip, making me want to kiss her senseless. “Maybe we should tell Ben and his friends thanks but no thanks…we start classes the very next morning. It would be a bad idea to show up all hungover.” 

I went over and pulled my love into my arms pressing kisses to her shoulder and neck. “We’ll be fine as long as we don’t drink too much. Nobody try to kill a pitcher all by themselves and we’re golden. I don’t know why they give first semester freshmen classes that start so early. I mean I’ve got an eight o’clock class…it’s like being back in high school all over again.” I grumbled. 

“You do realize that classes in high school started at twenty minutes to eight…right?” Fairy pointed out. 

I looked at him quizzically, “and? Your point is?”

Hummel smirked. “No point. Just an observation.” 

For some reason, his comment threw me back to the very first day Sam, Mercedes and I had walked into McKinley as a thruple. “Don’t worry Fairy, I promise to carry books this time.” Of course everybody in the kitchen looked at us like we’d lost our minds when we started laughing so hard that we could barely stand. Once we got our breath back, I grabbed the guys and we went and emptied the car while Kurt and Cede pressed Tana and Britts into service. 

By the time dinner rolled around, Sexy Mama, Hummer, Satan, Britts and I had spent so much time getting the meats and side dishes ready for the next day that we barely wanted to eat food let alone cook any. So Anderson hooked us all up with pizza from a little place right on the edge of Morningside Heights and Harlem. Artie, Sam and Richie Rich had gotten the grills, patio furniture, tables and sound system all assembled and setup, so we were set.

When we went up to bed we were supposed to head to bed. The next day was scheduled to start early and would hopefully end pretty late. It didn’t matter. We got in the room and Cede started getting undressed for her shower and all thoughts of going to sleep early went out of our heads. Sam and I waited for a second until she got down to her pretty teal bra and panty set and then we struck. We enveloped her, trapping her between us, taking turns kissing her until she was as aroused as we were. Sammyboy and I might have tried to do our usual top, alpha thing, but that night Mama swapped that shit on us with the quickness. She knelt between us and tried her very best to fit both our cocks into her mouth at the same damn time. That shit felt completely awesome. She ended up covered in cum that Sammyboy and I had great fun cleaning off her while getting ready to fuck her until we were all too tired and satisfied to do anything but sleep. 

Of course, considering how late we were up boning and sexing, we overslept. Thankfully the Fairy got the day of preparations underway. Sam and me rushed through our showers and got dressed. I threw on some cargo shorts and a tee shirt that everyone had gotten at Sam’s family reunion. It was a great shade of blue that Hummer would tell me later was called lapis, with black writing across the front that said ‘Just Puckett’. Some socks and tennis shoes and I was ready to go. I headed back into the bathroom to see what was keeping Sam. He’d gotten distracted watching our woman as she showered. I shoved him towards the bedroom and watched the rest of the show myself. I could see why he had though. It was kind of like watching a naughty peek-a-boo show. The way the shower enclosure was done with the frosting and then the swirls of clear glass watching Cede shower meant that we might see a nipple or it might be obscured by the opaque glass. It was so fucking sexy. But before I could shuck off my gear and join Babygirl, Sam dragged me down to the back yard. 

Since all of the prep shit had been done the day before we were cooking in no time. Making sure that I was alone in the kitchen, I threw together a big pot of Carole’s special BBQ sauce while Sam got the charcoal grill going. She had taught it to me a few summers ago when Finn had proven that he was hopeless in the kitchen or at the grill. Blaine took care of firing up the propane grill for me. Once it was hot, I laid out the beef and pork ribs. I looked over and noticed that Sam had grabbed the foil packets of vegetable and started letting them start cooking while the coals got ready for the meats. Ben and his boys came out around eleven with coolers of beer and pitchers of sangria with fruit and shit floating in it. Sock was pretty cool. He and I got along immediately. Man, that dude was fucking hilarious. It was easy to tell that he had never really been able to like, talk, to any gay guys before. He kept asking Hummel if gay guys would consider him hot. But thankfully he was funny enough about it that nobody got offended. Ben’s Sam was way intrigued with ‘all the polyamory’ going on in our house. He very quickly proclaimed that Artie was the ‘king of nerdy dudes everywhere’.

Jon came up with his girl Mallory; a tall, leggy brunette with fake blue eyes and even faker tits; and a huge ass platter of his grandma’s special recipe cookies. Jonathan Scully and Benjamin Gonzalez looked like the newest version of the odd couple or some shit. They didn’t look like they would even know each other let alone have been best friends and roommates since their second year of college. While Ben, at five seven, was a shortish, lanky, Latino with long, curly hair, Jon looked more Irish than Rory ever had. He was at least six five, broad and solidly built. He had reddish, dirty blonde hair and honestly he looked like he was ready to rip off somebody’s head and spit down their throat if he wasn’t smiling. Luckily he smiled a lot. 

I didn’t much care for his girlfriend Mallory. She was in her first year of the MBA program at Columbia. She was cold blooded like only a rich bitch can be. But that wasn’t why I didn’t like her. While, Ryan, Sam and I had been helping Ben and Jon move their shit in, the faithless bitch had flirted with all three of us whenever Jon wasn’t around. Hell even for the barbeque, it was like she was trying too hard or something. Tana and Britts came out wearing shorts and a baby tee and a tank top and flip flops. When Cede finally made it down she was rocking some sexy ass purple, capri length leggings and a strapless cotton tunic top that showed off her tits so good they were making my mouth water. She had finished her ‘casual but cute’ look off with her favorite pair of purple flip flops. But not Mallory. She came out in a hella expensive looking sundress and high wedge sandals that had Gucci embossed on the wedge. 

Ryan and Seth came up dragging what looked like the bouncy house’s answer to Twister. It was a lot bigger than the traditional Twister sheet and it was inflatable. The last to arrive lived in what had been the extra bedroom in Ryan’s apartment. Jamison Michaels was a cute black girl from South Carolina with a cute face, long hair that Cede swore was real in that ‘it grew forth from her scalp’, and a real dancer’s body. Ryan took her around and introduced her to everyone. During the leasing process she had only met Brittany, Ryan and Anderson. They had all approved her and so had Mills, so she was in. Within twenty minutes of meeting the rest of us, she and Kurt had bonded over NYADA and she was planning on being something of a mentor for him around campus. Santana and Jamie did their bonding while dissecting Mallory’s overdone makeup and way-too-expensive-for-a-backyard-barbeque getup. When she came over to me she looked me up and down and said quite honestly, “I have no idea what to say to a guy with a Mohawk…none at all.”

“So let me guess; you talked theatre with Kurt, hair or music with Cede, southern culture with Sam, dissed fake chicks with Satan…you haven’t had a chance for any one on one time with Britts or Artie, but you’ll find some common ground with each of them. Relax, it’s okay, you passed the interview…you got the job…or apartment as the case may be. You can stop buttering us up.” I said lightly. 

Jamie nodded thoughtfully. “Okay cool. So then can I ask? I mean Ryan said that you and Sam and Mercedes were together and Santana and Brittany and Artie are together. You are all from the same home town and were in the same glee club together. So is the whole threesomes thing like a thing in Ohio?”

I stopped and gave her a total ‘judging you’ look. “I passed English with the lowest grade I could get and Cede’s and Sam’s parents still let me sleep with my loves and even I know that that sentence was all kinds of wrong.”

“Did you get what I was asking?” Jamie kicked back with a roll of her eyes. I nodded. “Well then it was right enough…Are you gonna answer?” 

I shrugged. “For some people high school is so bad it is as much of a bonding experience as war. Cede, Kurt, Artie started off as the tortured. Tana and I were their tormentors. Brittany was too but in a kind of negligent kind of way. Different shit happened and we ended up tormented ourselves and Cede, Kurt and Artie…the rest of the glee club took us in and we all bonded. Sam moved into town and Cede and I were complete. Artie and Britts fell in love, but she loved Tana too…so she tried to just be with Tana, but she still loved Artie, when Tana realized that she loved him too…it just works for us. Kurt and Anderson are going on two years together. Sam, Cede and me are at fifteen months and Bartana hit a year in July.”

“Wow, that’s kind of deep.” Jamie said with a wide grin. “It’s weird. I’m sure that you get all kinds of shit for your relationship, but you come across as really loving your Sam and Mercedes. That’s cool. After a year away from them I barely remember half my classmates, and if it weren’t for Facebook, I probably wouldn’t be in touch with nearly as many. It’s really nice that you and your peeps are keeping up with each other. So what can I bond with Artie over?”

I shrugged. “Nineties hip hop and R&B, comic books, sci-fi shit, how hot his girl friends are…movies, books, actual science, how hot his girlfriends are… computers, cameras, tech shit, how hot his girlfriends are…that’s about it.” 

Jamie looked at me like I had grown a second head. “Umm…I consider both Santana and Brittany very pretty, but they don’t have what it takes for me to consider them hot.” 

“Yeah they do…they just bought theirs from a store rather than coming equipped.” I told her with a dirty grin before I headed over to see how Jon and Ben and his boys were getting along. 

But before I could make it more than a few steps, Artie came out and shouted, “Let’s get this party started. Now, since the point of this whole shindig is to get to know each other ‘cause hey, we from small town middle America and it seems wrong not to know the people who live basically in the same house as us; let’s all take a second and introduce our selves. But since just standing up and giving your name, rank and serial number is boring and lame…we each have to stand, give our name, where you’re from and all that usual BS, then tell us your favorite thing about being here in the city that never sleeps, and our biggest fear about starting whatever stage of life you’re entering.” He waited patiently until we all groaned and threw shit at him. “I have to go first because my parents thought that having As start both my names was just a great idea. I am Artie, former Limian, current NYU/Tisch freshman, Hubby of both Santana and Brittany. If you’ve got a problem with that please let me know so that I can ignore your existence from here on out. We live in Numba Two. I’m on your contact list as tech support, do not call me for trivial shit though.” He threw up a peace sign. “I like NYC because nobody gives a fuck here. Seriously…I saw a drag queen in a chair the other day. That was so freaking cool. Biggest fear about going to college is that I’m only damn near genius level smart when compared to my old classmates. That in the real world I’m not as special as I thought.”

“Hold up…if you are damn near genius level smart, why were you only third in the class?” Cede asked curiously. “Do me and Tana need to drive back to Lima and kick Figgins ass?” 

Artie laughed. “It wasn’t Figgins’ fault…Tanaka would pass me in PE, but he only gave me a C…it fucked up my GPA.”

“Wow that man was an asshole.” I said with no little bit of hate. Asshole may have been too nice a word to describe that jerk. 

“Alright, thanks and all but it's water under the bridge.” Artie brushed our indignations off.   
“Ben, you’re up next then Blaine cause you’ve got the next name in alphabetical order going by first names…and we’re going by first names cause I don’t remember everybody’s last names yet.”

“Hola, that’s hello to anybody other than Santana. I’m Ben Gonzalez from Seattle…basically. I mean technically I’m from a suburb named Puyallup, but still. I’m starting NYU Law tomorrow. “I think I’m gonna focus on litigation. Then I can work as either a prosecutor or a defense attorney. I don’t really have a steady girl. These are my boys Bert Wysocki better known as Sock and Samuel, AKA Sam, Oliver. I’m not really afraid of anything right now, but I cannot wash out and end up back home looking like an idiot. It took me too long to get my shit straight and get to school.”

Blaine rolled his eyes and stood from where he was chilling on the outdoor sofa with Kurt. “Okay, I guess it’s my turn. I’m Blaine Anderson from Lima, Ohio. I currently live in Number four. I’m starting Columbia tomorrow, along with about half of my housemates. My major is Business and Political Economy. I’m in love with this very handsome young man next to me. What I love about New York is that I can just BE here. Back home Kurt and I had to keep our touches and everything quiet so as not to offend the passersby. Here we can just walk together like a normal couple and its okay. I guess my biggest fear about starting college is not doing well enough to make everyone proud of me. I have a company that I will inherit from my dad, and I have to be able to make it a success so that none of the people who work for us are harmed.”

“Damn that’s deep. I mean whoa. I don’t know if you meant for me to do this too, but hell I like to talk so I’m gonna jump in anyway. I’m Sock…Benji’s friend since like forever. We used to get high together, but then he got scared straight and came to school but I refuse to let him forget his slacker roots. I like New York because there are a lot of gorgeous women here. I mean just looking around this yard and you see four different types of sexy represented. Five if you’re into the ‘chew out your heart and feast on your innards’ type. I’m not entering a new stage of my life…and I like it that way. Growing up is bullshit. So onto the next one.” Socks laughed. 

Britts bounced up next and told the new folk who she was and that she loved NYC because she got to sleep every night with Wheels and Tana. The looks on their faces were priceless when she said she was too awesome to be scared of anything but she did miss knowing what would happen that day thanks to Lord Tubbington who she explained was her cat that got psychic powers when he had catnip. I guess they saw that the Lima contingent wasn’t fazed by her communicating, clairvoyant feline, so those unused to Brittany S. Pierce just let it go. That was pretty smart of them since Santana looked like she was ready willing and more than able to fuck up anyone of them who tried to say boo about Britts specialness. 

Jamison was up next. She had taken a second during the other introductions to help Ryan and Seth with their addition to the party so she had to scramble to her feet when Artie called her name. “Okay…I’m Jamison Beverly Michaels. Born and raised in Spartanburg South Carolina. I’ve been doing musical theater since I was cast as Annie at the Converse College production of well, Annie, when I was six. NYADA seemed like a good fit for me so here I am. Tomorrow I begin my second year. Last year I was lucky enough to be in the Winter Showcase. So I’ve guess I’m scared of not living up to my hype this year. Oh, and as cliché as it sounds the thing I love most about being in New York is the music. No matter what kind of music you’re into, you can find it here. In clubs, on stages, hell in the subway, there is nowhere else like it.”

We found out that Jonathan was from a Navy family and had grown up in a whole bunch of places. He loved New York because it was a lot closer to his favorite relatives down in Maryland and DC and a whole country away from his father and perfect older brother. He feared that he wouldn’t make as good a psychologist as his uncle and aunt thought he would be. He said they were his biggest supporters and he didn’t want to disappoint them. 

Kurt was next. It was no surprise that he loved the ‘Great White Way’ and the fashion or that he feared having to go back to Lima because he wasn’t good enough. I didn’t think he had anything to worry about but I definitely understood not wanting to end up as a Lima Loser after getting the fuck out of that town. He sat down and then Mallory decided to hop her happy ass up. “My name is Charlotte Mallory Koch. Technically I’m from Wichita…but I grew up between a house in LA and an apartment here on the upper west side. I’m working on getting my MBA in global economics and my Masters in communications from Columbia. Like Blaine, I’ll be entering the family business after I graduate. I really only fear that by the time I graduate the country will be even worse off. That the economy will be completely tanked and all values and morals will have withered on the vine.” The look she gave the rest of us showed that she truly felt that we were part of the problem. 

Ben just laughed. “Mal, please stop preaching all that sanctimonious garbage around me. I know that you are nobody’s virgin, you drink to excess at least two nights a week, you’re judgmental and have a very loose relationship with the truth. So if we’re all going to hell…you’re right there with us.”

“You all will have to excuse Mallory. She just got back from a summer with her family…she must have been drinking the Kool-Aid.” Jonathan said as he pulled her back into the seat next to him. 

Sexy Mama gave the bitch a severe side eye. “Okay on that note.” She started and quickly introduced herself, including the fact that she, Sam and I were deeply in love. She talked about how she was looking most forward to experiencing as many different aspects of New York life as she could. Her fear was that things might prove too much for us and we’d let people down. I noticed that she was kind of careful not to mention anything very specific so I did the same thing. Ryan’s intro was way more interesting. He said no more than five words for each part. His fear was stated simply as “Failure.”

Our Sam went next. “I’m Sam Evans, of Nashville, Tennessee by way of Lima Ohio. I belong with and to Puck and Mercy. Anybody who doesn’t like that fact can kiss my country ass.” I should have realized that Sam would be seething about the comments Mallory had made earlier. His parents were proud southern liberals…which was still pretty conservative compared to, like, Californian liberals but he’d have found that pseudo-Christian allusion to our relationships being wrong as a personal attack. “My favorite thing about New York is that there are so many different cultures coexisting. That is all kinds of awesome, the freedom to exist and coexist and just be is way beyond cool. The thing I fear moving into this new ‘stage’ of life…like everyone else…not making it. I'm scared of not succeeding at college or growing up in general.” 

Ben’s friend Sam looked around. Since all the other guests had gone as well we were all looking at him like he needed to get up and make with the talking. “Okay. I’m Samuel Oliver. I have a fairly boring life in Puyallup Washington. I tried the whole college thing and it so didn’t work. I’ve gotta agree with Sock…the women in this city are all kinds of beautiful. I’d try to say something flirty about you ladies, but I’m not as funny as Sock and I don’t want your guys to kick my ass. My life is stagnant for the next little while so there’s no fear other than like getting fired or dying or something.” 

When he sat back down, Seth popped up quicker than a Jack-in-a-box. “I am Seth Ezekiel Cohen, Ryan’s brother and therefore the unofficial third roommate in number eight at least until I manage to make some friends at school…but when you consider that my first friend at school back home was Ryan when my parents adopted him when we were in high school…it could take some time. So Artie, if you need some help acting as IT for this crew, let me know. I’ve got your back. I like this city cause that’s where my bro lives and Sam…Evans not Oliver, cause Sam is the man when it comes to helping me with continuity in my comic. I have a girlfriend, she’s at Brown, but she would cosmically sense it if I called any other woman hot, though she has given me leave to say that Mercedes is and that if Mercy-Cede will let me I can add her to my comic, cause the book needs some ethnicity and apparently it is hard to tell a Jewish person from a regular white person in a comic book. I guess my fear is that I haven’t learned anything in the last three years and I still have no idea how to make friends or influence people.”

I decided to bite the bullet. “Ummm…Seth, hate to be the one to break it to you, but you were the one to get us all talking when we did the campus tour. Ryan isn’t that chatty.”

“Maybe not but Ryan has made a habit out of teaching me when to shut up and what not to say.” Seth pointed out. 

“Oh yeah, that whole what not to say thing is hard. I mean, I still remember talking with Artie when he was dating Brittany and I was dating Santana and saying that I hoped that our friendship would be as close as theirs…when they were actually an undercover couple.” Sam laughed. 

Artie chuckled too. “You so made me think that Kurt had been right about you when you first moved to Lima.” Oh no. I’ve seen that look on Artie’s face. He is about to say something he thinks is wrong, but he can’t help himself. “Then again since you’ve got Puck in your bed too…I guess your lemon juice blondeness was a homosexuality indicator after all.” 

Sam looked fierce and for a second I though he was really mad. But then he rolled his eyes and affected his ‘Just Jack’ voice. “Catch the vapors, and clutch the pearls…how many times must I tell you people. I’m not homosexual, I’m not heterosexual…I’m Puck’n’Mercy-sexual…much more satisfying.” 

That set the party off right. The rest of the afternoon was hilarious as Sam, Seth and Sock all tried to make people laugh so hard they shot any of the various drinks out of their noses. It only got worse once we started sipping on Ben’s sangria. He’d made a red and a white and laughingly told us that the white had some tequila and the red had some brandy. “Either way, we’re gonna have a damn good day.” He said as he poured the very first glass. Around one, Mercedes, Kurt and Santana had us set up one of the extra tables as a buffet and they brought out the sides. Between the different meats and all the sides, we were all full and happy by three. The grills however were kept busy until almost six. 

But other than Kurt, Blaine, Cede and Sam going in for about an hour to put all the barbequed hot dogs, hamburgers, ribs, steaks, chicken breasts and other parts into zip loc bags and into the freezers, we all just chilled out in the back yard. I don’t know if I have ever done anything that as much fun with my clothes on as playing the bouncy Twister with one hell of a good buzz. Eventually as it always does when we are involved, singing and dancing commenced. Jamie had a damn good voice; she and Cede did a James Brown song together and pretty much brought down the house. Nobody wanted to go after them. Around ten Sammy, Cede and I headed on up to our room…we had class bright and early the next morning and none of us wanted to fuck up. 

School Days (Chuck Berry)  
Mercedes PoV

There was never a point in my life where I wasn’t an undercover nerd. I loved back to school shopping. I loved getting my backpack together and ready ahead of time. I knew what was going to be my first day of classes outfit when I bought it in LA. After we finally decided to head up to our room, I headed into my closet and pulled the outfit together and set it aside on my ‘what I’m wearing tomorrow’ shelf. That done, I double checked my back pack and added my wallet and ids. The only thing I would need to drop in in the morning would be my phone and my iPad. 

“Baby, you’re set.” Sam teased leaning against the doorjamb. “Noah’s running us a bath. Leave that bag alone; if you repack it one more time…it might just sprout legs and run away. Time for us to go and relax.” 

I giggled a little at having gotten caught, but I let him pull me away from my OCD like nitpicking. I wrapped my hair before joining my men in our jetted tub. The bath lasted twice as long as it probably should have and by the time we got out, my legs were wobbly, my breasts sore from all the attention the guys had paid them and I would probably need to rethink the top I’d planned to wear to hide the multitude of hickeys I was sporting. Puck and Sam helped me slather on the lotion and I repaid them by giving them oral pleasure until they begged me to stop. I was a little shocked when I fell asleep sated and satisfied. 

I’d set my clock for six and despite being very excited, it was still hell to get my ass out of the bed. Thankfully I wasn’t leaving Sam and Noah behind looking comfy either. They had to get up too. Working together, our bed was made very quickly. I threw on some exercise clothes as they did the same and we headed down to the workout room. Blaine was there already and he said that Kurt had gone over to Number 2 to stretch and warm up with Brittany. Blaine, Sam, Noah and I warmed up with some yoga and then Puck started working with the weights, Sam got himself strapped into the power tower and started working on his core while Blaine went to work doing a million pushups. I hit the treadclimber and did thirty minutes on that. I cooled down with some more yoga and showered while the guys finished their more intensive workouts. 

Kurt and I met in the kitchen and by seven we had breakfast for everyone ready. Spinach, bacon and Swiss omelets with whole grain toast and fruit smoothies; they were healthy and hopefully would give us all the energy we needed for the morning. Kurt, Santana, Brittany, Artie and I ate together and then Artie headed out to get to NYU before his eight o’clock. The rest of us headed back to our rooms to get dressed. Noah was just finishing his shower and Sam was getting dressed when I walked back into the room. I’d thrown on a pair of ivory tanga panties and the matching embroidered demi bra under a maxi dress to go and cook. So it was easy to toss off the dress and fix my hair and face. I poured myself into a pair of black wash capri length jeans. I topped it with a cute tiered tank top that was a bright purple color with ivory lace embellishments at the scoop neck and straps. I had a black wash denim jacket to take with me in case classes were as cold as they were in high school. I slipped my feet into a pair of black thong wedges, grabbed my stuff and was ready to walk out the door. 

Puck had thrown on a pair of comfortable jeans and his Overlook Hotel tee, shoved his feet into socks and some sneakers while I took the bathroom to do my face and hair. By the time I finished dressing he and Sam had eaten, grabbed their back packs, which I may have packed for them a few days before too, and were ready to go. I looked over at Sam and he was wearing his WWJSD shirt, wearing his inner nerd right on front street. Unlike Puck though, he’d gone with some cargo shorts and was looking very much like a college student. Blaine said his goodbyes to Kurt and the Columbia contingent walked the eight blocks to campus together. We got to campus in time for Puck to be right on time for his statistics class. Sam and Ryan headed off to their classes, both of which started at twenty minutes after eight. Blaine and I had some time to kill so we asked around and found a little coffee shop to chill out in until we needed to make our way to our English class. 

From the moment that class was called to order to the end of my colloquium at Juilliard on Friday evening, life was just a blur of syllabi, and lectures and figuring out scheduling and how to get to places without being late to anything. I made notes not just on the lecture materials, but on the train schedules and the best ways to get between Columbia and Juilliard. Though the first day of classes was actually Tuesday, we were expected to attend our Monday classes, which kind of threw me, but in the end it seemed to work out fine. Puck, Sam and I did carve out some time to go to Temple with Bubbie for Rosh Hashanna, even if we didn’t really celebrate the holiday the way it was supposed to be done. I saw my Columbia-attending housemates on the daily, but despite basically living together I didn’t see most of the others until Friday night. We ordered Chinese, worked through some last minute changes to a few of the songs we were wanting to record and vegged out. 

The second week of school was a little easier as we worked our way into a routine. But it also included Yom Kippur. I truly love him, but a fasting Noah is a pain in the ass. Those twenty-five hours felt like they lasted a month and a half. The third week of classes was interrupted by a lunch meeting with Lyor, Josh Todd and Keith Nelson. By the time we had to rush out of there to make our Juilliard classes, we were golden to cover their song and couldn’t wait for our first day of recording that following Saturday. Unfortunately, that weekend day started really early we had to be up at seven to get to the studio by nine. Lyor and Deborah met us there and introduced us to the producers we had to choose from. Deborah had already done the preliminary screenings. The six producers she brought to us were all used to working with newer artists. Their fees are all within our budgetary constraints and were all willing to work around our hellacious schedules. 

But it only took us like ten minutes to get rid of one. He was so big into HipHop that there was no way he would be able to help us create the fusion sound that we wanted to create. Another bit the dust when he looked disgusted when Sam made a joke about Puck’s lower lip and his dick. Either the guy was homo-phobic or he just didn’t like crass humor. Either way he was all wrong for us, between Sam and Puck’s humor and Kurt and Blaine obvious gayness…that guy would have had an aneurysm in a day. The third guy to go shot himself in the foot just as much as the other two, he was determined that we’d only work with his approved background musicians and singers. The look he gave Sam when he pointed out that he and Noah both intended to play for our album and that we had our own background singers got him kicked out by Lyor before Puck could open his mouth or even worse, Santana could open hers. 

The other three were all very cool. They listened to what we had to say and talked to us rather than just to Lyor and Deborah. Xavi Rossi was a young, up and coming producer who likened our sound to an R&B version of the Evanescence kind of fusion sound. Since I was an Amy Lee fan, I didn’t mind the comparison at all. The other two were actually a pair of producers that worked together and called themselves ANSANE. They were Canadian and had begun as pure rap beat makers, but were hype to get their fingers into other pots. Noah, Sam and I got the best feeling from ANSANE but we liked Xavi as well. In the end we talked everything through and decided to stick with all three. Our hope was that it would allow for a more interesting album to have several producers rather than just the same sound across the board. 

After lunch we decided to have a test session with Xavi first. Santana, Artie and Blaine were all soon ushered into the booth to lay background vocals for the first track we were going to record, a R&B heavy, rock light song I’d written during the time Sam and Puck hadn’t been talking Senior year. In fact, the lyrics had been completed the day before their knuckle buster. Once Xavi was happy with the background vocals, he set us up to record the main track. Blaine took the baby grand in the studio, while Artie, Noah and Sam all grabbed their guitars. The music itself was bare bones and stripped down, everything acoustic. When Xavi finished the rough cut, we were all shocked. He’d pulled forward the piano and let the guitars add fullness without overshadowing or even really being heard in such a way that you could tell that they were there. 

Lyor smiled a wicked smile. “Xavi, I’m going to say something I almost never say after one edit. That was perfect. Mercedes, you caught the pain and the sorrow of that place and time so strongly, I almost want to know what on earth was happening to make you write such a sad song. I won’t ask, of course, but I must say that will be the second single off the album. Deborah, start trying to come up with a video concept.”

ANSANE had been listening through our stash of the songs we’d written over the previous six months and they picked the one they wanted to help us record as their test session. While we’d been working with Xavi, they had worked out the bass line and the beat mix they felt would work best with the song. They sent us out to eat and when we got back an hour later they had trumpeters, saxophonists and a few other musicians assembled and learning the music by ear from the simple track Sam, Noah and I had recorded in the den at the Mays house when we were in LA. The song had been spawned by the night the LAPD had decided to harass me based solely on the color of my skin and the word of some asshole neighbor. The song itself was fun and uptempo and some of the questions asked were silly and fun, but many of them were thought provoking…or so I hoped. 

The feeling in the room for the second song was totally different from the first. We were all laughing and teasing, everyone threw out their own ‘shakin’ my head’ question. But eventually we got our asses to work. The end result was actually less raw and more polished than the slower song Xavi had done, but the nature of the song lent itself to that. This song was more pop/rock with soul than the deeper, slower song we’d done before dinner. By the time we left the studio that night it was after eleven, but we were completely satisfied with the decisions and progress we’d made. We scheduled studio time from seven in the morning until eleven at night for each of the next six Saturdays, alternating between Xavi and ANSANE. Despite the lateness of the time we returned to the house, Sam, Noah and I made love until we fell asleep wrapped in each other’s arms. 

Sunday morning we had planned to go to church all together, but Sam got a call from the Manhattan BMG office at like six in the morning. They needed a blonde male model for some underwear ads for Vogue, and the guy they had scheduled had gotten into a car accident on his way to the shoot. Since Goykhman knew that Sam and Puck were in New York, he’d asked for Sam as the replacement. They offered him five grand for the day if he would help them out. There was no way that Sam wasn’t going to do it. Goykhman had kept them in work in Chicago and he was very kind to them, plus they were still technically under contract until the following June so Sam got up, showered and took the train down to the Central Park shoot. 

With Sam working, Puck decided to sleep in. Unfortunately, while the extra sleep might have been nice, I found that I just couldn’t roll back over and go back to sleep. I was feeling so very blessed I had to go and praise the Lord. At seven I got up and showered away the soreness that the long day and night had caused in my legs, hips and feet. I ran through my usual morning hygiene and beauty rituals and donned a pair of black silk panties and a sturdy but pretty black bra. A shaper slip went into place before I pulled on a really conservative black lace over nude linen A-line dress with a higher scoop collar and cap sleeves. I kept my makeup very light just lining my eyes and lips and a clear gloss. I put on the cross my daddy had given me the fall before and platinum knot stud earrings. I grabbed a purple leather handbag and stuffed in my wallet, cell phone and tucked in my bible as well. My feet were slipped into purple ballet flats; I dropped a kiss on Noah’s sleeping cheek and headed out. 

The pastor at my church back home had given my mother the name of several churches, with clergy he knew or knew of. Pastors who wouldn’t be bothered by the appearance of our thruple in the pews of their church. That morning I decided to take the train further up into Harlem to St. Mark’s United Methodist Church. The church was old, having been established in the late eighteen hundreds. The congregation was led by a female pastor. Rev. Jermin gave a beautiful sermon on the joy to be found in a good relationship with God and how to define the relationship not by talking about living a Christ centered life, but by our actions and tolerance and love of our fellow man. I found that I really enjoyed her sermon, but the choir was, well, it was very quiet. I knew that I wouldn’t have the time to join it so I shouldn’t complain, but I knew I would need to keep looking for another church home. 

When I got home from church, Puck was awake and playing Call of Duty with Artie over in his Gamer’s Den so I was able to get some time to myself. As much as I loved my men, there were times that I really just needed peace and quiet. Time alone with my thoughts. I put on my headphones and just sat in the center of the bed and tried to figure out if we were on the right path. I loved Sam and Noah and I knew that we were good on the relationship front. But I found that I was very, very worried about the meeting that was coming up with the image and marketing people from the label. It had been a battle to become truly comfortable in my own skin, secure in the love of those around me. The very last thing I wanted was to find that I was weak enough to allow people who knew nothing about who I really was to undermine or wreak havoc on all the hard work that had been done in the last year and a half.


	2. You & I (Nobody in the World), John Legend & Caught Out There (Kelis)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Want to see the finishes and details for the Brownstone…Check out Illy’s Flicker Account.  
> *Want to see the ‘face claims’ or, as I call it, the Casting Call for the OCs…Check out The Illy and Anni Yahoo Group.  
> ****THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****
> 
> Special thanks to KayBee80 & Illiandyanndra who have been Beta rock stars for all of my ten stories

Chapter 2  
You & I (Nobody in the World), John Legend  
Sam PoV

When you’re juggling what basically amounts to one and a half or two full course loads, a full time job, a part time, well… whatever they call my and Puck’s on call status at BMG and putting I the work to maintain a major, life lasting relationship as well as trying to manage the transition from kid to adult, scheduling and routines quickly become your best friends. Part of that was simply doing things like homework and note revision before we left campus, after all that’s where the libraries were and they had a special tutorial section for people with dyslexia and that helped me a lot. Granted what really helped was that my humanities professor was huge into in class discussions and not so big into ‘testing our regurgitation abilities’ as she put it. My English professor was cool too. He had a whole boat load of ‘systemic and individualized tools’ that helped me keep up with all the reading I had to do for his class. My other three Columbia classes were a freshman science class, its lab and a one hundred level architecture class. I only had two full classes and a seminar at Juilliard, but the added travel time in the middle of my day was so killer.

Still Mercy’s gift with organization was a blessing. She got Noah and me into a routine and to be honest, if I’d known her as a freshman, I probably wouldn’t have worries about getting into college so much. My grades would have been tons better. Besides when me and Puck had all our assignments done before we got home in the evenings, Mercy rewarded us with a before dinner orgasm… delivered in any method of our choosing. I think my favorite were the times when she got totally naked in the middle of our bedroom floor and sucked us off. God, I loved that woman.

Despite being eight of us in the house, we all ate our meals at different times during the week. Breakfast and lunch were most often eaten on campus or at one of the restaurants near either Columbia or Juilliard or NYU or NYADA or Tisch. But we all ate dinner at home, just at different times. So there were usually shifts of cooking except the two or three days a week Mercedes or Kurt did one of their awesome crockpot meals. No matter who cooked the last meal, they always left a plate for Kurt in the microwave. He usually didn’t make it home until last even on his early days. Granted his early days still started around eight and ended after seven, but then again his long days lasted until almost ten. He’d have probably been burnt out before KAMA’s first studio session, but he was just so damn happy to be doing what he loved, all of it…it didn’t seem like he even got truly tired.

Monday nights, Mercy, Puck and I usually had dinner before seven. Then we had our dedicated SKYPE calls with the parents, Tessa, and Triple S. As I cleaned up the kitchen, I couldn’t help but think that that Monday, the calls were even more important. Something was off with Mercy. Puck and I agreed that she was worried about the meeting with the image and marketing consultants the next day. We just disagreed about why she was freaking out. I pretty much thought it was for the same reason I was concerned. It kind of sucked that we had to take a day off from classes that early in the semester, but it had to be done. Thankfully we were still far enough out from exams that we should not be too inconvenienced. I already had a dedicated note taker for each class as part of my dyslexia accommodations. Mercy had bonded with a really quiet guy that had agreed to take notes for her in the two classes she had at Columbia on Wednesdays. She had also set things up with one of the girls in her rhythm and performance class at Juilliard. Puck had already charmed half his classes into love with him. He would have no problem getting the notes he missed.

Noah’s theory on why Mercy was retreating into her own head was more troubling. The worse part was that it was probably also the correct one. He figured that she was worried about what the consultants would have to say about the fact that she wasn’t a size nothing and that the three of us were not going to compromise on being exactly who we are. Puck and I weren’t gonna hide that we loved her nor were we going to hide that we loved each other. We sure as hell weren’t going to let anyone try to Sue Sylvester our girl. Hell, even Sue Sylvester didn’t try to force Mercy to lose weight senior year. I shook my head and ran up to grab my tablet. It was my turn to call the Jones’ home computer and I wanted to talk with Momma-Dani and Becs and Momma before we joined the others in the family room. I was happy to see that the Joneses were already logged in. Chances were good that meant at least Mom and Mrs. Dani would be available. As soon as they picked up, and I finished cooing and making funny faces at Amaea and Amara in their laps…at five months, the twins were already sitting up and babbling back and making sounds that almost sounded like they were calling me Bubba…I told mom how beautiful she looked and teased her asking if she was sure that it was just one boy because she looked like she had when she was carrying the twins. With the civilities out of the way, I laid the problem I was currently wrestling with at their feet.

Momma-Dani and Momma were both quiet for a long moment. “Sammy…this time, I think you’re going to have to let MeDe figure things out on her own. I know that you and Noah love her and want to take care of her, but there are some battles a person has to fight alone.” Momma finally answered.

“But, I can tell you that to me it sounds like my daughter is gearing up for a fight, not getting trapped in her own head.” Dani said with a little grin. “Look, I’ve had a bad feeling about this whole image consultant thing since the minute you told me about the meeting. I think MeDe has too. She’s not stupid and only a little naïve. Trust in her, Sam; trust her to be strong. She is, don’t doubt it. Be there to back her up, but don’t try to fight the fight for her.”

“I know…I know you’re right. But I just…Everything is going so well. I don’t want her hurt. I really don’t want her to go back to that place she told me she was in when she was letting Coach Sylvester’s weight loss juice almost kill her.” I groaned. “I just…is it stupid to want to protect the people I love?”

Both moms chuckled at me. “It’s not stupid.” My mom told me with a smile. “But it can be insulting.”

I must have looked at them like they had lost their minds. So after they finished laughing at me again, Momma-Dani took pity on me and explained. “Sam, MeDe is a young adult, same as you. If you want to be the big protector, it’s not gonna fly. She will take you to the carpet for treating her like she is you child rather than your life partner. God took the bone to create Eve from Adam’s side…she is to be a helpmate and a partner, not to be ruled over like a child.”

I stopped and for the first time thought about it from that point of view. “Wow…it is totally condescending to think that I have to always solve her problems.”

“Yup,” both mothers nodded. Maea made a sound of agreement. Mara was a little too busy trying to eat her foot to answer.

“Oh don’t feel bad, Sammy. It took your father years to figure that out. It is a part of loving to want to shelter those we love from the slings and arrows of life, but you’re just going to have to repress it for a while. You can let it all out over any kids you guys have in ten…twelve years.” Momma told me sternly.

Momma-Dani nodded. “If it doesn’t get on MeDe’s nerves too bad you might be able to bring it out when she’s pregnant. Especially with all those strangers you know are gonna be trying to touch her belly.”

We all shared a laugh at that. We knew how Mercedes felt about strangers touching her. “Thanks Moms.” I felt a lot better. “I’d better get downstairs; Mercy and Puck are probably on with the others by now.”

“I think I hear your dad talking with them on Benton’s iPad. Tessa is out with Aidan. She said to tell you guys hi, but with Friday night games, they had to move one date night to Monday.” Momma said with a laugh. “It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Stevie and Ethan have Cub Scouts on Monday evenings.”

“Of course not…nothing at all.” I laughed as I headed down to the family room. “Soon as I sat down on the couch bracketing Mercy between me and Noah, I realized that the Moms had been right. Puck was talking to Stevie, Stacey and Sarah while Mercy was telling the dads about the producers we’d selected. Puck wanted his chance to talk to Momma and Momma-Dani so he traded tablets with me as soon as I finished my conversation with them.

“So Sammy,” Stevie started as soon as my face filled the screen. “Puck said you guys had a cool time in the studio.” He laughed like a hyena at the thought that he knew somebody who recorded something in a real studio. “Is it how you thought it was going to be?”

“I don’t know. There are a lot more parts to it than I ever thought. The way they lay the tracks…it’s like they do everything in layers. So I guess not. But it makes more sense now how two people can do a song together without even being on the same coast.”

I guess they liked my answer fine. The next thing I knew, Stacey filled their camera, “Stevie has a girlfriend.” She informed me smugly.

“Oh really.” I drawled with avid interest.

“Her name is Bellatrix.” She further supplied.

I looked at her like she had grown another head. “Is she evil, or crazy or is she crazy evil?”

Stevie pushed Stacey over so that he could be seen as well. He rolled his eyes. “Despite her name, she isn’t crazy. She isn’t evil. And she isn’t my girlfriend. She’s just a girl I know from last year who’s in my class this year.”

“That you sit with all day, every day, even at lunch.” Stacey said smugly.

Sarah pointed out. “A girl you have admitted to thinking is cute.”

Stevie gave both girls a look that promised retribution as soon as he could wreak it. “I like talking to her-most of the time- and yeah, she is cute.” Then he totally took a page from Uncle Saul or Bubbie’s book, an admission that didn’t actually admit anything. “I’m not saying that she might not be my girlfriend at some point in life, but for right now she is my friend who happens to be a girl.”

“Good enough.” I said to further close that type. Turning the tables I asked with an innocent smile. “So Stevie…are Stacey or Sarah hanging out with anybody new…a new somebody who might or might not be male?”

“Naw…no body new. Stacey and Evan are in the same class…but I don’t see them hanging out with each other at school.”

“Evan doesn’t like it when the other boys pick on him for talking to a girl.” Stacey informed me quietly. “So we play together at home, but we don’t really say much to each other at school. It’s easier on him.”

“Wow. I thought by fourth grade they were beyond that stupid stuff. That was about the time I started noticing Moesha Jackson. She had the prettiest eyes in the class. And her smile was almost as pretty as Mercy’s.”

Sarah blushed. “I had my first crush in third grade. It was on Noah’s friend Matt…Matt Rutherford. He was cute and hot at the same time.”

Mercy leaned over from where she was finishing up with the Dads. “Knew you had good taste, Sarah…Matt was definitely a hottie.”

“Hold up…who’s Matt?” I said defensively.

Puck looked up. “Matt was Mercedes first dedicated dance partner in glee. The light skinned dude that I showed you in that first New Direction’s picture. He was my boy, but he moved to VA right before you moved to Lima. You’ve seen him on our facebook pages.” He said in a way that I wasn’t sure if he was soothing my ruffled feathers or if he was teasing me into showing my ass.

Either way I got sheepish and I felt the blush taking over my face. “Oh…cool.” I stammered much to the amusement of all. I hurriedly ran through the rest of the conversation with Triple S. Finding out that Sarah and Stacey were still doing the Junior Cheerios and Stevie and Evan were still doing the Junior Titans even though they had totally missed the camps. They loved it. Sarah was a little worried because when she entered the sixth grade she would have to cheerlead with the William Henry Harrison Middle School Cougar Cheer squad. The coach for the middle school was apparently a hippy type and Sue was convinced that the woman would ruin her future Cheerio Captain. They told us all about Jean, Coach Sylvester’s three month old daughter who…according to Coach Sylvester…was already a better cheerleader than most of the squad. Stacey talked all about the family plans for Thanksgiving. Then it was my turn with the dads who just reminded me that I should concentrate on being myself at the meeting the next day.

We talked with our family on skype until our tablets signaled that they needed to be charged. It was cool being independent…sort of…and on our own…mostly. But that sure as hell didn’t mean that we didn’t miss our family back home. On the way up the stairs, Mercy stopped on the second floor and grabbed Kurt to force him to help her pick the perfect outfit for our meeting the next day. It took them thirty minutes to tell Puck and I what they thought we should wear, another thirty for us to reach a compromise that we could all live with and then a grand total of seven…seven minutes for Kurt to declare that Mercy’s choice was inspired and flawless. I loved our woman and I cared for her bestie, but times like that they drove me nuts and not in a good way.

We showered and made slow, sweet love to our woman. We drove her out of her mind trying to show her with every touch, every caress, every lick, every stroke how much she meant to us, how beautiful and sexy she was to us. Finally we fell asleep totally smelling like sex and each other. The next morning we woke up at our usual time and went downstairs ti our home gym. It really needed a cool name. I mean we had a kick ass work out room. It in no way resembleled a closet with a treadmill and a thighmaster that most people thought of when they heard the words ‘home gym’, Since we weren’t in as big a rush, Puck and I did an extra rep on each of the machines we regularly used. Mercy did a full round of yoga before and after she spent some time on the treadclimber and the gazelle. I noticed that she had gotten into yoga for the increase in flexibility and stamina but I knew that she also loved its ability to help her with getting centered and her deep breathing. Her doing extra time on the yoga mat meant that she was pretty much dreading the meeting.

We were due at the Warner offices by ten, so as soon as we finished our work outs, we went down to the completely empty kitchen. The house was really quiet without anybody there, but everyone else had left for their classes. Working together we had breakfast assembled and on the table in fifteen minutes. As we ate, I noticed that we were pretty quiet. Then I noticed Noah noticing it as well. He and I exchanged speaking glances. Without words, we decided that the best thing we could do was to help Mercy find her happy place, so we sent her up to start getting ready, while we cleared away our plates and started the dishwasher with all the pots and dishes that had been used by the eight of us this morning. Then me and Puck hurried up to our room and surprised our woman in the shower. Even with her hair already up in her curlers and wearing a silly looking shower cap, she was still the sexiest woman I knew and the only one I wanted.

I don’t know if it was a woman thing, but Mercedes Jones had always had an amazing ability to use getting dressed to achieve an almost Zen like state. For some reason watching her that morning reminded me of the scripture that talks about putting on the full armor of God. Mercy was very deliberate in getting ready for whatever the day threw at her. She started with the lotion. This one was unscented, which meant…yup, as soon as Puck and I finished helping her moisturize her back and ass, she spritzed on the Hermes perfume Uncle Saul had given her for Christmas. Taking her hint, Puck and I used our Christmas gifts from Saul too, as we quickly threw on our clothes. By the time Puck was tricked out in a pair of dark wash, boot cut jeans, black v-neck tee shirt, burgundy tropical wool slim fit vest and matching blazer, some cool black Vans, I was slipping my feet into some newer than any of the rest I owned black Converse All-Stars having gotten dressed in a black v-neck pullover with white trim at the collar, a gray military cut Kenneth Cole Reaction blazer and black straight leg jeans. Mercedes however had only put on a pretty darker pink lace bra that seemed to have her beautiful tits trapped despite the fact that they were trying to escape with every breath she took. Her panties matched, but they too looked like they were barely successful in containing her gorgeous ass.

She stood at her vanity and did her hair and makeup while Noah and I reminded each other that we couldn’t just blow off the meeting in order to fuck our girl until she couldn’t even move let alone tempt us like that. When she turned back to us, big curls framed her face. Her big, beautiful eyes looked even prettier than usual, a steely glint only enhancing her light makeup. Her full, suckable lips were lined in a deep wine and glossed in one of her sheer glosses that hinted at a shade of pink that was almost mirrored in her lingerie. Mercy was so in her zone she didn’t even notice the lust in our eyes as we watched her pack her touchup things in her makeup bag, which then went with her phone, tablet, wallet and some other things into her black Guess Tote bag. I loved the purses that had their names on them. It made it so much easier when she sent us to get them for her or something. The tote also housed the ridiculously sexy and high as hell sandals…which were really just a strap of silver snake skin over her foot right behind her toes, and a few black and silver straps around her ankles that were attached to a three and half inch, black, skinny stilt she called heels. She would wear a pair of little ballet flats until we got to our destination and then change shoes before we went into the building. Only after her purse was packed and her flats waiting on her next to her purple chair did she put on the black silky, crop wide leg jumpsuit. The suit had a band collar and then a semi-sheer panel over her breast and upper back. The panel buttoned down to where it ran into the regular black silk and on down to the banded waist before falling in wide leg pants to hit her about mid-calf. She stood in the cheval glass for a long moment checking her appearance over one last time. Seeming satisfied, we were finally able to head out right around nine.

The train gods were on our side and we arrived at Warner’s new Time Square offices with about twenty minutes to spare. Puck and I took turns supporting Mercy as she quickly changed to her heels, then we entered the elevator with our heads held high. The receptionist had been expecting us. It was kind of weird. She greeted up by name before we could even say more than good morning. Taking us up a few floors, she showed us to a medium sized conference room that looked like something right off of a TV Show or out of an architectural magazine. The room only had two real, like made with wood studs and drywall, walls and those were painted a deeper beige color and both were highlighted with black and white abstract art paintings. One held a knee height, nine door console that went almost across the whole wall. The cupboards had two big black urns holding bamboo decorating the top. The other wall-wall was similarly ‘decorated’ with a tall, long, slim console table. Only then did I notice that above the facing wall there was a strip in the ceiling that looked like a projector screen could come down from it.

We were seated at a light wood, shiny and sleek rectangular conference table that had great, really strong lines and elegant in its simplicity. The chairs were the newest super modern executive office chairs that had arms and wheels and black and chrome coloring. They weren’t as comfortable as the ones in Mr. Lyor’s office had been…but they weren’t bad. There were five chairs on either side of the table so we chose to take the three center ones on the side of the table that faced the floor to ceiling windows looking out on Time Square. Our backs were set towards the floor to ceiling tempered glass that faced out on the conference room next door. The receptionist offered us coffee, a wide selection of teas and sodas. We asked her for some water only to find out that she had a whole selection of choices for that too. Hell, I didn’t even recognize most of the brand names she said. Thankfully, Ms. Jergens…Deborah…came in with the two consultants and asked that the receptionist bring us all bottles of Evian and glasses of ice.

Once their party was seated in the three center seats facing us, Deborah introduced us to the image consultant. Anika Rawlins was a beautiful woman…tall and thin…she actually made me think of a black Cameron Diaz. Her ebony skin was even darker than Mercy’s chocolate tone. Her eyes were the same dark chocolate brown, but they were so damn could they could have frozen the warmest heart. She looked every inch the big city image consultant. Her hair was cut very short, but too long to call a pixie cut. Her makeup was well applied in what I knew Mercedes and Kurt called a ‘day look’, barely there eye makeup with a light pop of color on her lips. Man since living with Mercy, Kurt and Blaine…Puck and I have learned way too much about that stuff.

Ms. Rawlins was outfitted in a sharply tailored, corporate day dress. The dress was almost completely black, but softened with cream colored panels down the sides. It probably would have hit a shorter woman, like Mercy, at the knees, but it hit Ms. Rawlins about three inches higher. Like Mercy’s jumpsuit, her dress was belted at the waist and she wore diamond solitaire earrings, but her earrings were round while Mercedes’ were square cut. Ms. Rawlins completed her look with sky high, two tone, beige and black peek toe sandals. Her greeting was pretty formal and you could tell that she was mentally stripping us down to find any weakness she could exploit.

Her companion, the marketing consultant was a very dark haired, dark eyed white guy. He stood and shook hands with us greeting us warmly with a smooth British accent. He was wearing a charcoal gray, two button suit with a crisp white shirt and purple tie. His black loafers were so shiny if I didn’t know better I’d have assumed they were patent leather, his belt matched perfectly. “Christophe Hamilton. I must say it is nice to meet you…nut you three have given us chaps down in marketing something of a dilemma. Americans are quite puritanical you know. Their rock stars being violent domestic abusers, that they can handle; out of control drug addicts, they can forgive…but polyamory…that they have trouble with.” He told us with a grin.

“Yeah well, anyone who doesn’t like it can suck my balls.” Puck said giving both Christophe and Ms. Rawlins hard looks.

Deborah hid a smile. She had or was dating Bubbie Ruth, or at least hanging out with her enough that Puck’s comment wasn’t a surprise at all. “I am sure that the marketing department has come up with a wonderful way to spin everything so that you do not have to bare your testicles to the mouths of half the country.”

“Especially since those belong to Sam and me.” Mercy teased.

“Oh we certainly have.” Christophe assured us. “There have been several online blogs by polyamorous homes for the last several years. Recently our department has helped those blogs start to trend and gain more national attention. We’ve even managed to aim one of the Huffington Post contributing writers at a triad living in Washington State. With the popularity of several television shows that show polygamist households like Sister Wives and Big Love have already gotten the conversation started. We are already paving the path for your interviews during the SongBird soundtrack promotional event the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.”

Deborah nodded. “Yes, talks are still underway to see which song will be the first single, but we do know that it will be one of your duets with Jill Scott, Mercedes. Also we’ll need to arrange a day in the next few weeks to get you in for some promotional shots.” 

We nodded and Mercy pulled out her tablet to make a note of the November date and to start trying to figure out when she could manage the promo pics. Christophe took back up where he’d left off. “To be honest, the ladies in the department love the whole soulmate angle you three mentioned to Lyor. He suggested that we play up the whole high school sweethearts willing to put in the work to still be together for the rest of their lives. He was completely right; the test market audience thoroughly ate it up.”

“The country is ready for another good love story. It’s been years since Ozzy and Sharon or Faith and Tim or Trisha and Garth. I truly think that we can play that up and while you three may not become America’s Sweethearts immediately…but you’re probably going to be too edgy for that anyway.” Deborah smiled reassuringly.

“You three should play very well with the Millennials and your age group…some parents will not want their younger kids exposed to your ‘alternative lifestyle’ but controversy sells.” Christophe acknowledged. “We’ve had our graphic designers come up with a few choice for the logo for your group name…KAMA. In bold black we have the word in a bold, new FUNK typeset on a field of royal purple, or red, white, blue, green or gunmetal gray. Though it looks best, to me, on the purple and the gray.” He showed us each of the different colors on his iPad and Puck and I agreed that purple or gray would be our choices too.

“I was originally going to say that I liked the purple best but that gray under the black is really kind of badass.” Mercy told him surprising me a little. “Would there be any way to make the background reflective or shimmery or something?”

“Cede…two of us are dudes.” Puck whined.

“Actually…I kind of like that thought. Maybe like the holographic kind of reflective.” I added my two cent. “Or maybe the field isn’t one color…maybe it is purple which fades into the gray and then back into the purple.”

Christophe made a note on his pad. “That’s not bad…We’ll see what we can work out.”

Deborah smiled. “That’s the bulk of Christophe’s info. Anika, let’s get started with you and then we’ll go to lunch and finish up afterwards if we need to. That way Mercedes, Sam and Noah can make it to their afternoon classes if we wrap up early enough.”

Anika nodded. “Very well. Sam shall we start with you. You present well. Your hair color is great. Your colorist should be commended. However, you look like you stole a lesbian’s haircut. It suits your face but is way too Beiber. Give me your class schedule and I will make you an appointment at Fleishman’s Midtown West location.”

“I was actually thinking of growing it long, really long…like Adrian Paul first season of Highlander or Lieutenant Worf season seven Next Generation or all seasons of DS Nine.” I said keeping my face innocent. I don’t think I would ever really want my hair that long, but something made me want to irritate the woman.

For a moment she was confused, but then she pulled out her iPad and looked up the references I had given her. It had totally worked she looked like she had swallowed a prune with the pit still inside. “While that might have worked for a rock or country star thirty years ago, it is not at all on trend in two thousand thirteen.” She said as if that were the final word on the subject. “Noah, you seem to think that you’ve got the whole rebel thing happening, but it’s time that you start to do that through fashion and rid yourself of that antiquated nod to punk on your head. Also…I think that as far as fashion goes, the two of you could benefit from separate closets so that Sam doesn’t grab Noah’s things by accident again…you two look like you switched clothes to try and mess up my advising.”

“We don’t even wear the same size.” Puck rolled his eyes. “I’m not ready to give up my ‘hawk…it’s a big part of who I am. If an Ivy League college interviewer didn’t mind it…why do you?”

“It won’t translate well to middle America.” She answered.

“Bullshit. We come from middle America…it got me all kinds of ass back home.” Puck’s wicked grin gave a real view into his ass getting ability.

“I’m sure that your lovers find you even more handsome without it.” Anika tried to manipulate Puck into agreeing to her way of thinking.

I shrugged. “I’ve never actually seen him without it. I do think he is hot with it though.”

Mercedes smiled. “Puck hated not having his ‘hawk…but Lord knows I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that he is even hotter with a really short cut all over.”

He leaned over and kissed our girl. “You helped me get my mojo back though. You were the best girlfriend I had ever had back then and you didn’t even let me get that far with you.”

“Okay…now I’m a little bit jealous that Mercy has seen you without it and I haven’t. So, I’ll make you a deal. Cut it off, if you still hate not having it, you can grow it back. If you cut yours, I’ll get my hair cut like Ms. Rawlins thinks I should too.” I made the gesture hoping that we could move on.

Happy to have gotten her way, at least temporarily, Anika looked over her notes and continued. “We’ll need to make an appointment to have you three go shopping with me.” she pulled up some sketches. “I believe that Sam should be dressed more All-American, boy next door… like a trendier version of Niall Horan. Puck, your look should lean more towards Lenny Kravitz meets Jared Leto.”

Puck and I looked at each other over Mercy’s bowed head. “So you want me to shave my head and dress like a knock off Russell Brand?” he asked for clarification. “Maybe you should move on to Mercedes so that I have time to digest.” His sarcasm was damn near dripping off that last sentence.

Anika actually seemed to think he really was taking her advice under consideration. “That is a good idea. Mercedes, Your style is nice. I do like your outfit, hair and makeup. If you dress like this for a business casual look, and know how to dress appropriately for a much more formal occasion then we will have no problem with your clothes. Though we do still need to shop together so that I can make sure that your choices are both on trend and correct for you and the image we want to project. It has been brought to my attention that Mr. Cohen has assured you that you will not need to lose any weight, but to be perfectly honest that is unrealistic. You are what? An eighteen…twenty? In this industry a size eight to ten is considered plus size. Beyond that your skin is far too dark, and your nose…would you be willing to consider rhinoplasty?”

“Oh hell to the no. My ass is not about to be no Little Kim.” Mercedes said with a fierce growl.

“I’m simply pointing out that your nose and skin color will keep you from mainstream success.” Anika said as if she were saying that the sky was blue. “Add in your size…”

“I’m the size I’m supposed to be, a fourteen or a sixteen if it’s cut small.” Mercedes told her. Baby’s voice was strong and stern. “What our society seems to have forgotten is that not every person is supposed to be a size zero. I’m healthy. My doctors feel that I am at a good weight for me. I refuse to hurt my body, health and spirit for the sake of other people’s vanity. Oh and let me go on record right now…I’m not dressing like I have no home training either. There will never come a time when the world will see me naked, that blessing is reserved for the men on either side of me. Further, for your image consulting friends, before they come up with some sure fire ‘perfect image’…I’m not ghetto…I’ve never been to the ghetto, in fact, I stay the fuck up out the ghetto…so there won’t be any hoodrat look either. What I will be doing is presenting an image real girls can look up to and emulate. I will maintain a healthy size for myself and portray a healthy lifestyle for our fans. I will dress well, because I really like fashion. I will dress with sense and sanity because I have four younger sisters and a younger brother at home that I want to grow up to respect themselves.”

Puck chuckled. “Do you know why so few people have respect for other people? It’s because they’ve stopped respecting themselves. Little boys want to grow up to be like Justin Bieber, little girls want to grow up to be the Kardashian sisters…what the fuck happened to having real role models? I’ve respected Mercedes Jones more than any other woman I knew other than my mom and Bubbie since we were in the sixth grade. Teachers used to ask me how I could treat my classmates like they were just conquests to be made…that was easy to do because all the other girls around us had no respect for themselves. Why the hell would I treat them like ladies when they were nothing but whores in training? But that shit wasn’t a Lima phenomenon…that shit was a nationwide problem. At thirteen, I was running game and banging twenty something chicks here when I would visit my family. They didn’t respect themselves any more than the young chicks back home. Cede wants to do something about that shit. She wants to be a beacon of sanity to hopefully help. Help us help these kids. Something tells me that we’ll make money hand over fist.”

“America is supposed to be a melting pot…yet currently our country is actually just a whole bunch of interwoven conclaves. For the most part black people only live around other black people, the same with Asians, whites, and all the different kinds of Hispanics. I think that the three of us are a pretty damn good example of what the new American dream should and can look like.” Mercedes smirked. “We have a lot to offer and could definitely make Warner a mint…but not if you water us down and make us just like everyone else. Gaga makes money because she stands out. Katy Perry, same thing. We will do the same…just do it better.”

Anika leaned forward in her chair. “How do you plan to do that?”

Mercedes laughed. “We’re going to go the exact opposite of where most current music artist go. Take it back to being all about the music. I’m not saying that we will never do songs written by others, but every album will have the sound and feel of the three of us. Think Taylor Swift with all the whining and complaining about our love life or lack thereof. There will be songs that make you laugh, cry, reminisce…it will be what music is supposed to be…invocative. Our image, we will be a blend of the real authenticity people associate with country artists, the classy, sexy, coolness people associated with the R&B artist of the nineties, and the aloof, awe inspiring wickedness people used to associate with rock stars. We’ve gonna teach kids to want to be more not by doing PSAs or acting like we’re in a Saturday morning very special episode…but just by being exactly who we are and who we were raised to be.”

I nodded. “Kids became little monsters because Gaga inspired them…let’s see what kind of impact KAMA can have?”

“And that image works with your name…which is all about sex and desire and the first word of the Kama Sutra…how?” Anika said smarmily.

I felt rather than saw Mercedes roll her eyes. “Desire isn’t a bad thing. Everyone has sex. The whole Madonna-Whore complex has to die. Our name doesn’t automatically preclude us from being good role models…but I’m willing to bet that most people in this country aren’t going to have the same issue you’re trying to create to get me to bow to your bullshit.”

“Then why am I even here?” Ms. Rawlins snarked.

“Let’s just be real, you’re here because the rest of the Image department sent you so that I couldn’t claim that the advice to change my nose and drop weight and that my skin color was too dark and I was just all around too black was racism. They played you psychology.” Mercedes told her with a wry grin. “Now, Ms. Rawlins, that you have towed the party line and told me that I need to change everything that makes me me in order to be a success in this business…are you ready to tell us what you really think so we can get some shit done today?”

Damn my woman is amazing. Deborah, Christope, Anika and the three of us spent the rest of the morning working on a plan to do way more than I ever thought possible for three kids from Lima who liked to sing.

 

Caught Out There (Kelis)  
Lauren Pov

It seemed like time flew after move in day and before I knew it, I had survived the first month of college. I’d met and bonded with some new people. I had learned a lot in even my basic, core curriculum classes. I’d gotten into a good routine with working out and practice and homework and classes. But for all of that I was feeling very, very horny. Finn and I were both working our asses off so hard to make sure that we kept out grades up and made the strides our coaches wanted from and expected of us. We didn’t even get to see each other at all Labor Day weekend. The football coach had held a minicamp from after classes on Friday until basically right before classes started Tuesday morning. By the third weekend of September, it seemed like the only time we saw each other was when we were working out or doing homework. Which was fine it gave us time to be together and talk and everything…but damn a girl had needs.

Little did I know that Finn was feeling the exact same way. So that Saturday after he was released after the Buckeyes versus Florida A&M game, he found texted me and told me to meet him in a different spot from where we usually met after the games. Rather than meeting near the concession stand so Finn could get a corn dog before they closed down completely, he asked me to meet him at the parking lot. He had showered and was dressed in one of his ‘I’m on a date’ shirt rather than his usual post game track suit. He’d gotten Vince to drive his truck over so he could surprise me after the game. “Some of the juniors and seniors on the team were telling me about a great BBQ place near campus. I was hoping that you might want to go with me.”

I couldn’t help but smile. “I’d love to.”

He ‘helped’ me into the cab of the truck before going around a getting in himself. He quickly drove us to Ray Ray’s Hog Pit. Just stepping inside I knew I’d found my new favorite restaurant. Finn felt the same way. “I think I’m gonna love this place, but Kurt would hate it.” he chuckled.

“Naw, he’d grouse and complain about the lack of ambience until he tasted it and then he and Cedes would go to work trying to figure out everything the guy did to the food to make it taste so good, and the exact contents of the BBQ sauce.” I shot back.

The ordering process wasn’t as bad as the Soup Nazi on Seinfield, but they weren’t playing around. “What’cha want?” the old black man behind the counter asked quickly.

Finn and I exchanged a look. “Give us two of whatever you think is the best?” he finally said honestly. “This is our first time, so we’re trusting your judgment.”

“Alright kids, plant your butts at that table over yonder and we’ll see about getting your bellies filled.” He said giving us a smile that was missing more teeth than it actually showed, but we followed his directions to the letter.

“I know we see each other every day, but I miss this. Just you and me. no homework, or notes…no papers or weights or anything.” Finn said with a smile.

With a smile I acknowledged, “I know what you mean. I was thinking earlier that it was cool that we made sure we spent time together, but we haven’t had time to do more than catch a quick make out session since our first weekend here.”

Finn looked around and blushed deeply as he nodded. “As much as I’ve missed one on one non studying time with you, Finnie has missed Ma’am at least twice as much.” He looked guilty. “Is that wrong?”

I shrugged. “I’m good with that.” I told him with a smile. “Think Vince will cover for you tonight? Ma’am could do a lot with her Finnie over night.”

“Coach said that we were off for the rest of the weekend. We have a check in Monday morning, but he is not doing curfew this weekend.”

“That’s not a bad reward for winning three of your last four games.”

He nodded. “Yup and Coach says if I can get up to twenty reps at 225, then he’ll give me some field time when we play Northwestern.”

“That’s awesome.” I shouted. “Freshmen almost never get field time.”

“True, but with Barrett’s elbow giving him trouble and Collier out for six weeks while his leg heals…there aren’t any sophomore QBs to give field time and supposedly the Northwestern team has been up against Miller so much they know him. The thought is that if we give them a fresh face, maybe we can knock them off their game.”

“Not a bad idea. Just kind of sucks that it’s not gonna be a home game.” I told him. But before he could say anything, our food arrived. The old man had done us right. He’d created a sample plate. We each had half a beef brisket sandwich, half a pulled pork sandwich, three baby back and three spare ribs, and a selection of the sides, so small portions of the greens, macaroni and cheese, slaw and baked beans. The food was great, every piece of meat so tender it was almost melting in our mouths. The sides were pretty damn good too. If we’d never had Mrs. Danica’s greens or Mrs. Gabby’s mac and cheese, I’d have said they were the best I’d ever had.

When we left there, we were hella full and had to go boxes. The drive back to campus was filled with anticipation like back when we were home trying to get our time in between school and when our parents got off from work. It was a little strange to that that we were at the same level of ‘oh my God, we have time to be our real selves’ as we would have been before graduation…but that was exactly where we were that night. We made it back to campus in record time. As soon as we stepped foot in the dorm, Finn went up to his room to change and we agreed to meet in my room ten minutes later. While I was alone, I quickly set the scene for our play.

Granted it didn’t take me long. During move in, I’d set everything up to make the most of our freedom whenever we could. It was a simple matter to turn on my lamps rather than the over head light and attach my cuffs to the, thankfully, sturdy if smaller than we were used to bed frame. I used most of the time to strap myself into one of my black bustiers and donned a pair of thighs and my Ma’am boots. When Finn knocked on the door, I was ready. I stood to the side, shadowed just in case it wasn’t him, and commanded that he enter.

Just as I had taken the time to get myself into my ‘Ma’am’ head space, so too had my boyfriend. The person who entered walked in just far enough to close and lock the door behind him. Locking out the sounds of the celebration that always rocked our dorm after a home game win…the same sounds that would swallow up any that might clue my floor mates in on what Finn and I were really like. Finnie stood there, stripped bare to the waist, wearing only the dark wash jeans he’d worn on our date. His shower shoes protected his feet, and his wrist cuffs and collar were dark against his sun kissed skin. Finn’s shoulders, arms, chest and stomach were firmer and more defined than ever before. For the first time in weeks there was no tension in his shoulders…no stress at all held in his frame. “Come and kneel before your Mistress.” I bid him.

He crossed the room with a grace few would believe and took a semi-submissive position on his knees in front of me. “Thank you Ma’am.” He said quietly, his eyes locked on mine. In the midst of our moment of reconnection, it struck me how inadequate the descriptions on our driver’s licenses really were. To the DMV we both had brown hair and brown eyes. But that in no way spoke to the fact that Finn’s hair was ten shades darker than mine or that his liquid eyes were about three shades lighter. Shining there in his eyes were our own trifecta of emotions; trust, lust and love; the reason that his stance was only semi-submissive. I always wanted to see those feelings in my Finnie, so I modified the stance to suit us.

“Now Finnie, you’ve been a bad, bad boy. You’ve needed Ma’am and haven’t said a word.” I whispered into the still of the room. “Though, I suppose I’ve been a bad Mistress…so busy that I didn’t realize how much you needed me.”

Finnie shook his head solemnly. “No Ma’am…you told me when we started this that if I ever needed you to take me in hand, I should let you know. I don’t think that I knew how much I needed this until I fastened on my cuffs and collar and suddenly it was like a weight I didn’t even know I was carrying was gone.” He confessed, exonerating both of us with his truth.

I allowed him to make me feel better and decided that he had earned something I rarely gifted him with. “I am pleased with your honesty and happy that you do not hold any resentment towards me for what is a mistake on my part.” I held up a hand when he would have objected. “It was a mistake on both our parts, but my job is to see these things and watch out for you. I will be sure to make sure that I watch for the tension that being the Quarterback too long costs you. So to reward you and as a sop to my conscience, I want you to lie on the bed. Tonight, for this first orgasm, you may cum without permission and I will allow you to cum first.”

Finnie nodded and scrambled into the bed happily thanking me as he went. I took a moment to make sure that my lips were glossy and red before showing him the real reason my lip stick was called blow job red. It took me about ten minutes and I realized that I was very glad that Finn’s summer change of eating habits had survived the start of school. He tasted better than ever before…so much so I let him have another orgasm just for the taste of it. Of course, after he caught his breath I set him to work. I allowed him to give me three orgasms as well, but I gave him permission to do so however he wanted to. Finnie kissed me breathless, before kissing and nipping his way to my breasts and licking and teasing them through the lace of the bustier before tugging them from their silky prison and sucking them and fingering me through my first explosion of pleasure of the night. The next one came from Finnie licking and sucking my pussy until fire floated through my veins. The third soon followed. I had him pull his cock ring from the drawer next to the bed, don it and a condom, then we fucked ourselves damn near unconscious.

Sleeping two deep on the not quite full bed would have been difficult even for two people far smaller than us, but we made it work. The next morning, we separated only to shower. Once clean we vegged out in my room making out while watching movies on my Mac. There was more lovemaking, but mostly between Finn and Lauren. Though Finnie and Ma’am made their appearances again before Monday morning. Unfortunately that would need to be enough for the time being. Finn had a full course load plus football including traveling to games. My first meet wasn’t until November so my own practice scheduled wasn’t as crazy as it would be, but I was carrying two extra classes over full every semester so that I could graduate with two full BSs rather than having a major and a minor.

Had I realized what the world had planned for us, probably I would have kept Finn locked in Finnie mode unless he was on the field. He wouldn’t have minded and probably it would have saved us each a world of heartache. Fucking cheer chicks. The only good ones are named Mercedes, Kurt, Brittany…and I guess I can add in Santana and Quinn; but like them or not both of them broads would admit they were suspect.

The next couple of weeks flew by in a haze of happiness. Since we both realized how much we needed the down time without the masks we showed the world, we reworked our study schedule to find us some time to just be. I realized that we’d been so comfortable with our clique from high school that we hadn’t bothered being ‘normal’ around them, so the hiding at college was pretty exhausting. The change was remarkable; we felt so much better not keeping ourselves limited to what others could handle seeing. Finally having some freedom at some of the time was such a positive change it seemed to improve every area of our lives. Finn got up to the twenty reps his coach wanted and stayed there for two weeks so he got the chance to head three plays during the Northwestern game. Granted the coach put him when they were two touchdowns and a conversion down…probably thought the game was lost and Finn couldn’t really mess it up worse…but Finn shocked the shit out of his coach. He was credited for the team’s come back having run the ball in twice and then he threw the winning touchdown. The senior Buckeyes threw the younger crew a party to celebrate the victory. The Buckeye cheerleaders were, of course, the fucking entertainment. Most of them didn’t take that phrase literally. A couple did.

When they got back Sunday evening, I was waiting to welcome him home, just as I had been there to see him off. The second I saw him, I knew that something was wrong. He was being hailed as the game’s hero. ESPN had mentioned his name and called him one of the freshmen to watch…Finn should have been jubilant. Instead he looked ashamed, scared and sad. As soon as he saw me, those brown eyes clouded even further. I’d know Finn Hudson long enough to recognize that look. That was the same look he gave Crazy Berry when she found out he had lied about sleeping with Santana junior year.

As he squared his shoulders and headed my way, I had the incongruous thought ‘Oh joy…at least he plans to confess’. If the look on his face hadn’t clued me in, the tight, almost desperate, hug he gave me as soon as he reached me would have. “So I take it, we need to talk?” I heard myself ask even as I wondered why the hell I was making that shit easier on him. We headed to the quietest park on campus. Johnson Park was near the medical center and on Sunday’s was always pretty empty. Both of us really wanted to get whatever bullshit was about to happen over with. Finn babbled on trying to explain himself for almost twenty minutes before I finally cut him off. “So what you are trying to tell me is that my darling boyfriend got so drunk he can’t even figure out whether or not he fucked one of the ‘wish they were Cheeri-hoes’?”

With his eyes still downcast he nodded. “When I woke up this morning, everything hurt and when I went to get out of the bed to find something to take she was in the bed with me and I still had on my boxers, but she…she didn’t have on anything.”

“Okay Finn…before I say anything…I want you to consider something. You’re sitting there, telling me that probably you slept with somebody else, but hoping that I will forgive you. Why should I? What if I came back from a wrestling meet and said this same bullshit to you? How would you respond? How would you feel?” I took a calming breath. “Finn…you have trouble with monogamy. I knew that when I got with you. Color my ass all kinds of stupid, but I really thought that I would be different. I guess I’m just not. So look. Why don’t we pull back? Maybe we can be friends for a while…see if we can maintain that. You should probably try to be single for a time. Get your head right. You can get counseling for free…cause Finn…I don’t care what anyone says this need you have to fuck shit up in your life when things are going good…you need to get help with that.”

I stood o walk away before I gave in to the urge to punch him or something even more violent when he called out to me. “If I go to the counselors, can’t we stay together…work on this together?”

“No.” I said with total, brutal and complete honesty. “I don’t trust you any more Finn. At this point even if I found out that you didn’t fuck some random cheer chick, I don’t trust you not to be enough of a dumbass that you end up in this same bullshit position next time you go out with the team or to a party or something. And I can’t be Ma’am if I don’t trust you any more than you can fully be Finnie if you don’t trust me.”

“But I…”

I growled. “Shut the fuck up Finn. I’m trying to leave here while we can still salvage our friendship. If I stand here and think about this shit too much more I’m gonna kick your ass so hard that you’ll be really fucking glad that you are this close to the fucking hospital.” I wish I could say I did something bad ass like went and found a new guy to fuck with that same week…but all I felt like doing was crawling under a rock. I decided that spending what remained of the weekend eating B&J in my dorm room was a good middle ground. Monday morning, I worked that shit off in the gym though. No way in hell was I going to let Finn Fucking Hudson cost me my scholarship. By Friday, I was feeling worse for Vince. Poor guy was acting like a kid caught in a divorce trying to keep his parents together. Finally I sat him down and explained that I couldn’t be that chick that took her man back and nothing changed. I was too fucking dangerous to keep taking shit until I snapped. That at least got Vince to relax. “Anyway…you are still coming home with me for Thanksgiving. We can go and introduce you to Cedes” brother. That is gonna be some funny shit.”

I didn’t know if Finn and I would be able to be friends or if we’d ever get back together, those questions chased themselves around in my mind whenever I allowed my thoughts to wonder, so I knuckled under and concentrated on my classes and my training. My grades had always been good, but they were amazing by the end of that first semester. The same could be said for my training. Every ounce of aggression and anger I had for Finn and whichever rando he’d hooked up with was channeled into my wrestling. If only I could have made it stop feeling like somebody was shadow boxing my heart every time I saw him, maybe I really could be his friend. I needed to talk to someone, but my real true friends were all his too and I didn’t want to fuck that up from him…most of the time. I made a decision. If I was still feeling ‘some kind of way’ about Finn by Thanksgiving, I’d talk shit out with Mercedes, Kurt and Tina when we were all home and face to face. It may have been delaying thinking about things further, but I had to admit, the decision really helped me be able to start sleeping the whole night through again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Before you all start calling for my head on a platter, please know that this is setting up something major that is part of the canon story line.


	3. Crazy Girl (Eli Young Band), God Bless Saturday (Kid Rock) & Thinking Out Loud (Ed Sheeran)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ****THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****  
> Allow me to name a few of the best reviewers names here:  
> Isis Aurora Tomoe, zeejack, Sharie, Gingerberrycatt, Rainbowbrite0006, & hgbul1  
> Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories   
> Special thanks to KayBee80 & Illiandyanndra who have been Beta rock stars for all of my ten stories  
> AN: Many of KAMA’s songs are real songs recorded by artists in the past. Please check out the Yahoo Group for a full listing of the correct singers, songwriters and other necessary information.   
> *Mariposafria, if you are still reading there is a little Tidbit in here just for you.

Crazy Girl (Eli Young Band)  
Rachel PoV

Although I can freely admit that I was not ideally situated, location-wise in New York, I -like a phoenix rising from the ashes- soon settled into NYC life with ease and found a group of sycophants both within my building and at Tisch. Flatbush Gardens was not the trendy walk up or loft in SoHo or the Village that I had imagined, but they were nice enough…I suppose. The entire complex was actually a reclaimed, renovated government housing ‘projects’ and the renovations were incredibly well done. While the apartment layouts were the same, everything had been upgraded from the firewalls and drywall to the kitchen and bath fixtures to the employees. The former section eight apartments were now even wired for modern data and I had to admit that the acoustics were definitely a selling point for me. Currently my building, which was still trying to force its way out of the stigma of its unfortunate past, was home to a mix of students of the arts...and peppered liberally with unfortunate souls mired in other less important fields...along many people just starting their careers. The first person I met lived across the hall. She was an Israeli national in her early twenties who was in New York for specialized training with the UN. Naomi Samson had proved herself to be a good neighbor; helping me find a nice synagogue nearby, praising my voice rather than complaining that my practices some time ran a tad long. However right around the time I found out that Naomi had a rather unfortunate strong personality, I also realized that while she was nice enough neighbor, she would never allow herself to become useful enough that I could consider her to be an actual friend. 

I found my “in building” friends in the laundry room. Faye Barberari and Miller Brochurst lived a few floors above me in another two bedroom unit. Faye was a sous chef at La Grenouille on the East Side of Manhattan and could always be counted on to supply me with dinner for a song or two. Miller slid easily into the vacancy left by Kurt’s defection. He was tall and slender, very fashion forward and totally gay. Miller had graduated FIT on the same day that I had graduated Carmel. He was currently a paid intern for Isabelle Wright at Vogue. Within the first month of our friendship, he’d arranged for me to have a full makeover, since he felt my look was still far too Midwest. I disagreed, but I was quite happy to not have to pay the three hundred dollars I had been quoted at a salon near the campus to have my hair returned to my original lustrous, deep, rich brown.

The hairstylists that Miller introduced me to were quite adept. They restricted the very professional looking honey blond of my hair to just ombred ends while the mass of it was back to deep chocolate brown tapering down to the ‘unfortunate color choice’ they felt I had made right before the beginning of my senior year. Once the hairstylists were happy, they turned me over to the hands of two makeup artists who did my color palette and taught me to apply more makeup than I would ever want to use...after all, why cover the perfection of my natural complexion? The clothing that was pressed upon me was on trend and seasonal, which meant that I would be able to use those pieces to augment my more classic choices. The ones I had diligently purchased before I left Lima for college. 

However, I wasn’t the only thing that received the makeover auspices of Miller and Faye. My apartment was very quickly redecorated to fit all the clothing and makeup I had gleaned from the goodwill of Miller and his mentor. My refrigerator was overflowing with decadent, and yet always vegetarian or vegan, offerings from Faye’s kitchen. The two of them were definitely well on their way to making up for the less than stellar location of my apartment. Everything was not just going far better than expected on the home front. Tisch had proven to be far more compatible with my voice and destiny than I had ever imagined. I was very proud of how very well I was doing carrying a full course load. I had high grades in all four of the classes I was taking my first semester. All of my professors were enraptured and enthralled by my voice, as they should be. Even my dance teacher spoke of my technically flawless version of ‘Oops I Did It Again,’ hailing it as infinitely better that the original. I ignored her following comment as to the fact that Britney Spears could only be improved upon. 

Best of all while they are ‘famous’ for the program Clive Davis established, Tisch really did have a very good vocal theatre program as well. Speaking with my advisor during orientation had proven quite beneficial. I was happy to learn that since I had elected to go into the vocal theatre program and, as I understand it, Santana had elected to pursue the broader vocal performance major in addition to Business or Marketing or some other irrelevant thing; I managed to avoid her for the most part. I only had one class with the aggressive Latin Ava Braun, and that class was huge and she was all the way across the room. The campus was large and spread out and yet I still found it very easy to find out why Santana came to our colloquium darting smug, superior glances at me…as if she knew something that I didn’t know and that the information would somehow place her above me… Mercedes and her paramours were already beginning to record their first album. 

From there it was a matter of researching studios and the production process. In the course of the third week of my investigations, I finally managed to get the name of one of her producers. Xavi Rossi was a young producer who had graduated from Tisch just a few years before. My advisor had known him during his years of attendance. I sold him some line about being interested in finding out more about what was expected of an artist in a recording session. Since the school actually encouraged alums to come back and mentor current students, my advisor was kind enough to cultivate an introduction for me. 

Xavi Rossi was quite attractive. He was biracial, African-American and some form of lighter skinned Hispanic or perhaps Italian, stood about six foot tall and had a slim, swimmer or runner physique. It didn’t take me much time at all to find out all about his work with ‘Kama’ as they were apparently calling their group. He had nothing but glowing praise for their work ethic, songwriting and their voices. He even lauded the range of the no talent hack that had been my best friend before he turned on me for the lesser talented Mercedes. I decided in that moment that while Xavi might have been suitably attractive, he did not have a sophisticated enough ear to suit my tastes. Besides, try as I might he refused to allow me to listen to any of their tracks. I was hoping that I would be able to get my hand on something to leak on the internet. It was a well-known fact that no one would buy albums when they were able to get several of the songs for free. 

Yet, my Dealings with Xavi did prove valuable. During the course of our discussions, Xavi introduced me to a NYADA senior named Brody Weston. Brody held my voice above all others and he was even willing to schlep all the way out to Flatbush to help me with the few little problems I was having in my dancing class. Despite her good taste when it came to my vocals, Madame Kryzanowska refused to acknowledge the inherent grace and fluidity of my dancing. She often likened me to ‘a possum on valium’. Brody, through various means helped me to find a sensuality that I was never before able to bring to my movements. 

Granted though we did explore a carnal liaison, at no point did he ever even try to take my virginity. He, more than anyone I’d ever known before, understood its importance. After introducing me to the wonders of the female orgasm, through cunnillingus only of course…he even noted that mine was the most intense he had ever been privileged to witness…Brody hastened to advise me not to let it go for less than a major reason. “If you save that for the right director or producer, you would literally be writing your ticket in this town. Especially if you learn to evaluate their inner kink and cater to that need. Men in power in this industry all have their inner needs. Figure out what makes them spank their monkeys and you will literally be golden.” He was even willing to help me learn to read people for their hidden needs and desires. He was definitely proving himself to be one of the most useful friends I’d ever made. 

God Bless Saturday (Kid Rock)  
Puck PoV

By the third week of October I was fucking done with the whole fucking going to college while working on album thing...and all of the shit it came with. Our weeks were ridiculously full. Monday through Friday we had classes from eight in the morning to five in the evening. after dinner we either worked on school shit or we rehearsed with our background vocalists and musicians so that we didn’t wast any of the hella expensive studio time. Saturdays we were in the studio usually from seven to eleven. On our one damn day off, Sam or Mercedes were always dragging us out of bed to go to church. The simple truth of the matter was that I was so tired and so sick of the same old same old that I wasn’t even having as much fun working on my guns. In fact, it was so fucking bad that when BMG called and needed both me and Sam for a weekend shoot in the Hamptons, we took that shit without even asking how much. Unfortunately Cedes decided to stick it out in the city and take the day in the studio to lay down her vocal tracks for ‘Leave a Light On’, ‘Hard Out There’ and two other songs where Sam and I were basically just extra musicians and background vocals. 

The weekend didn’t help as much as I’d hoped. We were in the fucking Hamptons in October taking pictures for summer catalogues. The shoot lasted from sunup to sundown with barely any break and when we were on ‘break’ we were busting our asses trying to write papers for our shared freshman humanities class. Euripides Medea was one hell of a classic, but it was heavy reading in the best of times. Gonna also admit that to me that shit was hella-scary...I don’t know a single dude stupid enough to cheat on a broad once they had read that play. Thankfully the small papers we had to do were only fifteen hundred words tops and they had to be turned in via the class’ website so no actual paper was involved. Originally the professor had been all about the discussion, but someone got all pissed off about her lack of structure and the rest of the department dropped the hammer. That so sucked. Even with the lack of fun that weekend, it was still really worth it. Before we left Sunday evening, they cut us each a check for sixty-five hundred bucks each. Which was definitely awesome. 

All the work wasn’t that bad really but all wasn’t right in the land of the New Directions either. Finn called crying because he’d fucked shit up with Lauren and he was trying to figure out how to fix it. Santana was stressing because Berry was acting like she was plotting some shit and Britts was fucking egging her on rather than helping Artie calm her down. AwA and Mike were cool, but there was something going on with Baby Mama and her man, and we’d barely been able to talk to Beth once a week since the end of September. The family was doing great. Klaine was working their shit out. We were even doing our shit as landlords. Got to take some aggression out on a clogged drain in Ben and Jon’s apartment, but I still couldn’t shake my feelings of restlessness. 

As the restlessness got worse, it started coming through in our sex life too. I mean, don’t get me wrong, we did something sexy every single day, even if it was just blow jobs or tit jobs and eating Sexy Mama’s pussy until she was ready to climb a wall, but it got to a point that Cede and Sam were almost convinced that I had my own hormonal time that just happened to be in the fall rather than the summer. The Sunday the week after Sam and I ‘weekended in the Hamptons’ we’d missed church all together because I’d woken Mercedes up an hour before the alarm went off by hooking her legs over my shoulders and eating her sweet, juicy pussy until she came awake screaming and cumming. Her screams woke Sam and he joined me as I kissed my way up to lick and suck and tease Sexy Mama’s beautiful tits. Sam and I have a real jones for Ms. Jones tatas so we stayed there nipping, nibbling and playing until she was screaming and cumming all over again. I rolled on a condom and was balls deep inside her before she could even catch her breath. Only then did I lean down and capture her lips in a scorcher of a kiss. When we kissed too long, not paying Sam’s weeping dick enough attention, he started butting the head against our cheeks until I turned and took the head deep into my mouth. 

Cede was kind enough to lick and suck at the shaft of his dick even as I was pounding her pussy like a fuckin’ boss. I let her have Sammy boy’s dick so I could tuck back into sucking her tits while we boned. I groaned and threw back my head as my balls drew up ready to empty into the center of our woman’s very being. For just a second, in my mind, I imagined that there was nothing at all between us. “Fuck Cede, you feel so good. Feel even better raw. I dream about it sometime…filling you full of our cum, watching your tits get bigger, your belly swell with our babies. Fuck you’re gonna be so fucking hot when you’re knocked up. Won’t she, Sam.”

“Shit.” Sam hissed. “Oh fuck, that’s hot as hell. Shit, Mercy…you’re not gonna be able to keep our hands off of you or our dicks out of you when you’re carrying our kids.” He moaned. 

“You like the thought too, Mercy?”

“Oh God…oh God…Oh oooh…” Mercedes moaned. Her real feelings were evident in the way her body shook and shivered, her back bowed so hard she almost bucked me clear off. Then she let out a scream that we hadn’t heard in a while. Sam’s dick turned into a fire hose and mine wasn’t any better. When I came to we showered and I pressed Sam between me and Cede and Cede between the wall and out Sammy and fucked his ass while Sexy Cede used her soft ass belly and hands to help him rub one out. After a second round with no real fucking, Sam took his control back as soon as we got back into the bedroom. I’d gotten distracted pinning Mercedes to the bed on her belly so I could fuck her amazing ass, so Sam took the opportunity that presented itself to shove his dick into me. Cede got her butt back up and knelt under us giving both my and Sam’s balls a tongue bath. We didn’t make it down for food until almost one. Thank Yeshiva that the beverage center in our man cave was fully stocked or we’d have gotten seriously dehydrated. 

That full day of sexing helped me a lot more than the working weekend away. Probably because it was all three of us and that always made shit better. Not that shit wasn’t awesome when Sam and I or Cede and I or Cede and I were together without our third; it was just that things were perfect when we were all three together. 

Deborah visited us in the studio the Saturday before Halloween and made us an offer that we could not refuse. And if we’d tried, our friends would probably have killed us. Warner was hosting a party on Halloween night to celebrate the holiday. Unfortunately one of the artists on the schedule for the event, Gucci Mane, was having legal problems that made it completely impossible for him to be there to perform…i.e. his ass was in lockup somewhere far away. Deborah was willing to give us up to twenty VIP tickets to get everyone we wanted in if we’d do her a solid and fill in with three or four songs. 

Since we’d already recorded eighteen or nineteen songs for the album, we had the songs ready. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that we hadn’t done shit else. We had no gear. We had no choreography. We hadn’t even really got the bulk of our performance band together yet. Basically she was asking us to put together a four song set in four days. Of course we agreed. Thinking through everything we would need to get done to be ready in less than a week, I called in the big guns. Bubbie showed up and between her and Deborah they agreed that Bubbie Ruth, and Anika were going to handle getting our performance outfits. We just needed to get the music together. We knew that we were going to release the Buckcherry cover. That was slated to be our first single and it was the most prepared of everything we had in the can. We worked out that Anderson would handle the piano that night, Sam and I would take strings. We’d have to use the drummer and a couple of other studio artists that ANSANE had gotten us and we used in all our studio sessions with them. Kurt was going to be our stylist that night while Artie, Santana, Jamie and Britts would handle our background vocals. Or that was the original plan. Then we realized that Jamie, like Kurt, was held to NYADA’s strict performance outside of school rules. 

All NYADA students had to get permission to perform outside the school sponsored performances. The best case wait period for permission was like ten to fifteen days. No way was there time. Then Jamie pointed out that she and Santana both had basically the same range. In fact Jamie had only helped out on the album when Santana couldn’t because she had shit for class or something. Thankfully, Brittany had a great idea. “We should see if Quinn can come down for the weekend. The Unholy Trio can definitely back up MercyCedes easy peasy.” Calls went out and Quinn and James agreed to come down after their classes on Thursday morning. With that handled we turned our attention back to getting our tracks laid down for Sam and my solo songs. The album would have mostly tracks that were all three of us in shared leads, but there were some songs that were duos and we each had two solos. We were actually getting pretty close to having all our tracks in the final edit stage. So we were trying hard not to let the Halloween gig interrupt our flow. 

But shit was still fucking wrecked on the daily routine. We ended up practicing all day Sunday and every evening that week. Wednesday we had to try on all our clothes and let me tell you, the dress Bubbie was putting Cede in was gonna make it hard as hell to concentrate on singing any damn thing. Thursday as soon as we were done with our main classes, we had to skip our colloquium, but after receiving two of our tickets for the party, the lead professor was totally understanding. We got to Madison Square Garden and were shown to an honest to goodness dressing room, where we proceeded to geek the fuck out for like twenty minutes. Bubbie Ruth had taken a half day and her and Kurt had the room all ready for us. They started working on rodding Mercedes’ hair and then we were led into sound check. It was weird as hell. The stage we were on was going to play host that night to Jason Derulo, Flo Rida and Bruno Mars. The three ‘immoral, sexual deviants’ from McKinley High were going to be the opening act for three pretty huge fucking names in music. 

During the course of the afternoon we met Maggie and Tae, a country girl duo that was opening the night on the Warner Nashville stage. They were a little flirty until they realized that me and Sam were both completely taken, after that they were cool. They told us that Blake Shelton was the final act on that stage and Sam was caught in a conundrum. He had to decide if he wanted to see Bruno Mars or Blake more. He went through a whole verbal pros and con list but he kept forgetting what he had already said…it was hilarious. In the end though, that decision was pretty much made for us. The country concerts started at seven, so Blake would be going on at nine. But we were scheduled to start our set on the main Warner Music stage in the Theatre starting at nine. So we’d be able to see the R&B-Pop set after us on our stage and we could catch two or three of the acts in the hard rock/Roadrunner set that started at twelve in the Arena. That set started with Killswitch Engaged followed by Nickelback and closed out with Slipknot. We’d miss Killswitch, but we should be able to see the others if we didn’t collapse in a doggy pile in the dressing room after we came off stage. I don’t think we’d slept a wink all that week. 

Sound check wasn’t a short process. But it wasn’t too long either since we didn’t have a whole bunch of stuff to set up. We worked our way through it and plotting out the movements on the real stage then left the dancers to get in a practice while we headed back to the dressing room. It wasn’t super huge but it was decent. There was a couch and everything. We were still packed in there like sardines. And of course, there was some bad news. Brittany had secured us ten dancers from her classes who she had trained and taught the choreography she and Mike kicked out over skype. One of them had gotten hurt that morning in their classes. With the choreography set for ten, Brittany made the decision that she was going to have to act as a dancer rather than singing. Unfortunately that left us with a problem when it came to backup singers. We were just getting ready to lose our minds and freak the hell out when Quinn and James showed up. Most of their suite-mates had plans on campus but Quinn’s roommate Taylor had come down with them, unable to resist the siren’s call of a weekend in Manhattan. The Lord God had our back for real…Taylor had been in her high school glee club and had helped Quinn with practicing the backup lyrics. She was happy to step in for Brittany and the dress fit her even better than it had Britts. She had to wear her own shoes, but they were shooties and they kind of looked similar to the other girl’s so it really wasn’t a big deal.

Santana, Quinn, Taylor, Blaine and Artie were seen to first, basically because they did their shit themselves. But I have to say Kurt was prepared for every possible scenario. He had his shit planned down to the last details. He had chosen a color palette that worked for each girl’s makeup. He even managed to whip up something for Taylor whose complexion was about halfway between Santana’s and Sexy Mama’s. The ‘Pips’ makeup was simple just neutral ‘not quite smoky’ eyes with sheer, natural lips for the trio of girls while Cede’s eyes were done all dark and sultry and full on bedroom, sexy, come hither looking. Her lips were a soft petal pink…shit, I wanted to chew them like fucking bubble gum. Since Sexy Mama’s hair was in long but tight curls down to her luscious succulent tits, our ‘back up singers’ all had stick straight hair…even Santana. 

The girls were all in blue leopard print mini dresses that made the most of their modest curves, their shoes were black leather dealies that left their toes and heels out but otherwise mainly looked like ankle boots. But my Boo…her dress was fucking killer. If Tana and them dresses were called body con, then the one Sexy Mama was rocking needed a new term. It didn’t just conform to her curves; it showcased each and every one of them. It was so figure hugging that even with the shaper slip and lingerie; I could still tell you exactly where her nipples were trying to poke through. The dress itself was kind of Cede too. It had three quarter length sleeves, and was a shimmery navy blue with multicolored birds and jungle shit all over it. The back of the dress was a darker blue mesh panel from the top of her ass to the back of her neck, which was good ‘cause Mercedes Jones tits are way to bodacious for her to go braless. Bubbie and Kurt finished off her look with big ass platinum and diamond hoop earrings and black platform sandals. 

Sam and I, we were each rocking suits, his was a lighter shade than my navy. His look was pretty monochromatic, shirt, jacket and pants all damn near the same color while my shirt was blue and black plaid. I was rocking some navy sketchers while Sam was in, what was rapidly approaching being his fucking trademark, Chuck Taylors. Artie and Anderson were both in black suits with bright blue shirts, not a single one of us were even close to wanting to wear a tie. Kurt put some stuff on our faces, Sam’s paler than mine, and did some gel shit to Sam’s hair to make him look like me and Mercedes had been running our fingers through that shit and he made my ‘hawk lay down. I swear we’d just sat down and the fucking stage manager was calling us up to the stage. We grabbed our guitars and followed him with Cede between us and our accompaniment behind. Bringing up the very rear were the dancers in their black cargos and black or dark gray shirts. We’d found and marked our places earlier. We took those places and things were ready. 

Anderson took his seat at the baby grand piano near the left hand side of the stage. Artie, Santana, Brittany and Quinn took their places at three mike stands off to the right. They had been great about making sure that Artie and Blaine had headsets like us rather than stand mikes like the girls. The emcee announced us with a cheeky allusion to our relationship. “Warner Music’s newest trio doesn’t just share a stage. They share everything. Please welcome, in their first appearance; Sam Evans, Mercedes Jones and Noah Puckerman…known together as KAMA. Their first album ‘Necessity for Existence’ will be out Spring 2014.” The crowd was pretty quiet because hey, we were the pretty unknown opening act. We’d argued most of the week about the best way to introduce ourselves to the world. Ultimately we chose to have the poppy, kind of weird until you paid attention to the fucking words, WTF anthem for the new millennium, ‘Shakin’ My Head’. The first verse really had questions everyone has asked themselves even if they were high as hell when they did, so by the first chorus the audience was way more into it. It helped that it had a thumping bass line and we went for irony in who sang certain questions, like Sam asked why Republican’s hate blacks and I asked why Jesus looks like a white guy. We let Mercedes ask about flowers looking like vaginas, though…neither Sam nor I could make it through that line without cracking up. 

The crowd was hype as hell when we went into the second song. They didn’t know the words yet, but they seemed to like it none the less. It was a sexy duet between me and Sexy Mama called ‘Pillow Talk’. By the end of that song I noticed that the seats were really filling up. I don’t know if people were just arriving, or if they had been in the Arena at the Warner Nashville concert and come over, or if they had been getting concessions and their friends told them to hurry up…but it went from smatterings of folks to asses in the seats really quickly. That was great. Because the third song of the set, ‘ColourBlind’, was all Cede with the rest of us just acting as her accompaniment. It was truly heart wrenching and there were women in the audience actually crying by the end. In order to bring shit back up we finished off with our Buckcherry cover ‘Rescue Me’. I had to keep shit real, I didn’t know if it was the whole dancing all up on Mercedes whenever I could, waltzing with her and Sam during ‘ColourBlind’ or just being up on that stage in front of what had to be at least five thousand people or what but by the time we got off stage, I was hard enough to break rocks. 

We didn’t even come close to making it back to our dressing room, which was probably a good thing because even though it was crowded as hell I don’t think that would have stopped what happened when we got out of the walk way. Thankfully, Cede had scoped out an equipment closet and that bitch was actually unlocked. She dragged us in, locked that bitch, pushed me to her side, shimmied her tight ass dress up and her spanks thingy down. By the time her dress was around her waist I’d caught on to her plan and I was ready. When she bent down and went to work slurping and sucking Sam’s cock, I ripped her soaking wet panties off and buried myself balls deep inside her. “Shit. You’re too fucking wet. Feel too damn good.” I growled. It was shameful how easily my ass became a two pump chump that night. I was exploding before I could even set a rhythm. Mercifully, Sexy Mama and Sam were just as fucking hot. Cede’s tight, wet heat was squeezing and undulating around my dick as she screamed out her pleasure around Sam’s which unloaded making that scream into a gurgle real quick. 

We didn’t get much time to bask at all. I had barely started to shrink at all when there was a knock at the door. “Artie made me promise not to pick the lock, but you three need to come on and get changed if you want to get to our seats before Jason Derulo goes on.” Santana’s voice was smug as hell. 

Shit. “She’s right.” I grumbled. So we pulled ourselves together and made it back to the dressing room. Our friends and family had already changed and they just wanted to give us their appreciation, before they headed to their seats. Deborah had been able to work some magic and get the dancers comp tickets in the regular seats so the twenty VIP tickets she had given us were enough, especially since Cede, Sammy and I all got all access passes. In fact since we had two extra tickets after making sure that Bubbie, Saul, Mills, Neil and Jarrard, and all the housemates and tenants…including Seth and his girlfriend Summer who had started to use Ryan and Jamie’s apartment as the halfway point between their schools…we were able to give Ben a ticket for a chick in his classes that he was trying to get up in. 

We had to make a quick change, but there was no shame in our game. I changed into some jeans, a white long sleeve tee and tossed on my black leather jacket and called that shit done. Sam was in pretty much the same thing, but rather than a leather jacket he threw on a semi-heavy flannel shirt. Of Course Mercedes had to be sexy-fly though. Her jeans were distressed with horizontal slits down the length of her legs showing her legs. But she was smart and she’d pulled on some pantyhose under them for warmth. A black New York Girls tee shirt, a black blazer with leather sleeves and darker makeup finished off her look. Just before we got ready to head to our seats, Deborah poked her head in and she was smiling back. “You guys killed it. Christophe called he said that KAMA is already getting blown up on social media. He needs you to come in some time next week and do some promo shots so he can set you up with your own online presence.” 

Mercedes shook her head. “It can’t be Monday I have the shoot for the ‘Who You Are’ with Ms. Scott on first thing Monday morning. She was nice enough to make sure it was a day I didn’t have classes.”

“If it won’t be an all day thing, we can do it the next morning? We have Tuesday off for Election Day, but our midterms start Wednesday and I still have a paper to finish.” Sam chimed in. 

Deborah sent off a series of text. “Anika will do all the shopping for you with you having total veto power. Christophe says that if you will give him from eight to noon on Tuesday, he will help you with the paper. He minored in English.”

“Probably he was just kidding, but we will hold him to it.” I said giving her a fierce look. 

We quickly finished up and headed to our seats. Saul, Millsy, and the rest of the crew were waiting on us. The concert was boss. Watching Sexy Mama dance to Derulo’s ‘Wiggle Wiggle’ was so worth the price of admission…the last week worth of hard work. As an opening act we didn’t get paid shit well other than the clothes, we got to keep them, and all the tickets. At least we didn’t have to come out of pocket like we might have if we weren’t doing them a favor. After Bruno Mars finished up, we all headed over and got there in time for the last two RoadRunner bands. By the time we left the Garden, it was half after three. Nobody even rolled over to make it to our first classes. And when we did roll out we all looked pretty much like we had the morning after Rachel Berry’s Train Wreck of a party junior year. Que, James and Tay headed back to Yale, their mid terms started Monday. Summer and Seth had actually gotten a hotel room because Ryan refused to relax his ‘no body is having sex in my bed except me’ rule, and they stopped by before they headed out too. 

The next week there was still no rest for the wicked, but after the concert and seeing the marketing department at Warner boosting us up through social media the restlessness was gone. KAMA had a twitter account, a FaceBook page; we were trending all over the place thanks to ANSANE and Xavi putting out teasers of a few of our songs. Granted I let some of the edginess resurface when it came to making love to my boos. It was fun as hell getting my Babygirl and Alpha Man to bone all night even when they had classes or even when they were so tired they could barely get wet and hard again. Besides, why should Sammy boy get to be the only one runnin’ shit and makin’ us scream ourselves hoarse? The Zilla was truly loving that shit. I really thought that I would have to bury that part of me forever. I never believed that his appetite could be appeased with just two lovers all the time. But having what had been the strongest part of me integrated in with the best parts of me made me really feel like I was a grown up. It was time to call Anika and have her schedule that haircut. 

Thinking Out Loud (Ed Sheeran)  
Kurt PoV

I loved my brother, but he was officially an idiot. He was happy with Lauren. I know that he was. He was really, truly happy. Then he had to go and ruin it. I’m probably losing all kind of brother cred, but I totally agree with Lauren, even if he didn’t sleep with the other girl, he should never have put himself into the situation where he could honestly have no clue if he did or didn’t. Per Lauren’s advice, he started seeing a counselor on campus and the psychiatrist felt that something inside Finn made him feel like he didn’t deserved to be happy. So, of course, the first chance he got, he wrecked it. Then to add insult to injury, he had the nerve to try and act like Lauren was wrong for not giving him another chance.

“I’m in therapy. I’m trying to make the right choices, make better decisions…but she still says we have to stay friends.” He sighed. “I miss her so much Kurt. I miss her all the time.”

I sighed as I tried to think of the right thing to say. I hated to see him so sad but I could easily see Lauren’s point. “Finn, you know that trust is one of the most important parts of any relationship.” 

“Yeah, Dr. Baker keeps saying that without trust there can’t be a real, lasting love.” Finn asked more than he stated. I could tell that he didn’t get where I was going with that statement. 

So I explained. “It is even more vital in the kind of relationship you had with Lauren. Communication and trust are of the utmost importance. Lauren could have taken you back even though she still felt hurt. She might have even tried to convince herself that she really had forgiven you…on your timetable rather than her own…but that kind of hurt doesn’t go away just because you want it to. If you two were in a scene and that hurt came out you could get physically hurt, which would in turn emotionally hurt Lauren even more.”

“Oh.” Finn sighed again and changed the subject as he was wont to do when you agreed with the other person instead of him. “So how did that big midterm project go in your textile class?”

I allowed the change and we talked about classes and school. He’d gotten some tutoring to help him with his midterms, but since he was on the football team, they had a whole network of free tutors. So he was pretty confident that his grades would be okay. He listened to me complain in one breath and gush in the next about my NYADA Movement class and my FIT Flat Pattern Design classes. We talked about how he was getting along with Vince, those two had totally bonded. They were so close already that Noah actually seemed a little jealous. We discussed our individual travel plans for Thanksgiving. Finn would get home first since he could leave Tuesday after his classes and had to be back by early Friday afternoon to travel with the team to Ann Arbor for a Saturday game. 

After my classes on Tuesday I had to help Mercedes get ready for the Drop Party Warner was holding for the SongBird soundtrack at the iconic Webster Hall. Granted, I only ‘had’ to help her get ready in exchange for the chance to attend the event so I wasn’t complaining. I was certainly finding it to be true that entering adulthood alongside my very best friends in the world and attempting to make my mark on the world was proving to be more difficult than I had expected. All around me, the people I love the most, myself included, were making mistakes, working themselves ragged, and becoming embroiled in drama the likes of which the Kardashian sisters would find exhausting. However, it must also be said that the perks did usually outweigh the downside.

Over the thanksgiving break, our side of the house would be mostly empty, but Santana, Brittany and Artie would watch over it for us, and I believe that Artie’s mom and dad were going to be staying in our guest room while Santana’s and Brittany’s parents stayed in their two guest rooms. Wednesday morning, very, very early, the five of us along with Bubbie Ruth, Saul and Mills were flying to Ohio, renting a car or two and driving back to Lima. We wrapped up our conversation and said our goodbyes. 

Blaine finished up his course work and put away his things. “Finn still upset that Lauren won’t take him back?”

“Yeah, Quinn and Rachel have him convinced that ‘I’m Sorry’ is a total panacea and forgiveness is automatically assured there after…or at least reconciliations are. Because neither of them ever really forgave him as quickly as they took him back. Instead they allowed him back into the relationship and punished him until they felt better.” 

“Speaking of punishment, did you warn him that Santana, Puck and Mercedes know?” My boyfriend asked with a small smirk.

I shook my head “Carole made me promise not to. She wants him to actually go home rather than hiding in his dorm room. We all know that if he knew that Santana can’t say his name without cursing in Spanglish, he would never believe us when we tell him that she is staying here.” 

“She isn’t as mad as she could be…there was still some English in there.” 

That was very true. One day the month before some guy had tried to mug her on the subway. Santana bad been so deeply angry she’d retreated so far into her grandfather’s native language that the cops had assumed that she couldn’t speak English at all and had called in a translator. Thank GaGa they decided to drop the assault charges against her. It really was self-defense…and after some surgery…the mugger didn’t even lose his fingers. I shivered. “I still can’t believe that the police really returned her straight razor.” 

“Well it was a graduation gift from her grandfather.” Blaine smiled as he crossed the room.   
“You can’t forget that part.”

“Who could?” I chuckled. “Only Santana Admira Lopez would receive an antique, onyx straight razor as a graduation gift and decide that it was the perfect thing for personal defense.”  
Blaine laughed. “I think that’s exactly why he gave it to her. He’s lived in New York since he was a child. He probably worried about his granddaughter in Manhattan. Don’t forget Cedes’ sisters-in-law gave her that lipstick looking Taser, and Puck gave me those brass knuckles that look like a four finger ring. Didn’t your dad give you something too?” he pressed his point. 

I blushed. Of course he had. I had just barely legal to own pepper spray and mace and a safety whistle. I probably would have been insulted but he gave Finn the same thing. “He got me some things.” 

My handsome boyfriend wrapped his arms around me. “See, all our family and friends wanted us to have a way of defending ourselves in case of any unwanted attacks.”

With a grin I asked, “And what about wanted ones?”

“Oh, nothing can save you from those.” He teased before dragging my mouth down to his.   
Blaine’s kisses never failed to leave me breathless. That night was no different. No matter how tired I was, a few kisses from the man I loved with all my heart and I was refreshed and renewed. My hands smoothed over his cloth covered back until they found the hem of his shirt and stripped it from him. Then they trailed lightly, teasingly over his heated skin tracing the dips and plains of his well defined back and shoulders. While my fingers and hands stoked and teased, Blaine’s were busy being about the business of getting me naked. I didn’t know if I realized that my lounger pants were around my ankles before Blaine broke our kiss to drop to his knees and envelop me in the warm, wet cavern of his mouth. He opened his mouth wide and worked it down the full length of my organ. Blaine had long ago become comfortable enough with my size that he was able to take my whole length into his mouth. When his lips were being tickled by my pubic bush he clamped them closed around the base of my shaft and rubbed his tongue against the sensitive underside of my cock head. Blaine's mouth worked up and down my shaft, as he used his lips and tongue to stimulate my full length. He was making deliberate slurping sounds as he swept up and down it knowing how I loved it when he emphasized how much he was enjoying sucking me. The sounds of his slurps and sucks and my moans pleasure quickly filled our room.

“Oh God Baby.” I moaned. Only the pleasure that Blaine brought to me could make me pray to a God that I didn’t believe in. “So beautiful…feels so good.” I babbled. 

I felt more than saw Blaine chuckle. He was always amused when I ‘found my religion’. But his laughter was an odd sensation for me, since his mouth was clamped around my cock. He stunned me into incoherence when he pulled off me to concentrate his efforts on my exposed glans. He lapped at my oozing slit like someone licking a melting ice-cream and then worked his lips over the red, swollen head, suckling it loudly and making it throb with satisfaction. He took me deeply back into his mouth just as I was getting to the point of no return, the change forcing me back from that edge. I pouted a little when he stopped again before I could cum. “Get on the bed on your hands and knees.” He commanded his voice harsh and gruff. When I’d taken off my shirt, pulled back the counterpane and complied with Blaine’s order he murmured and, “Now, Baby, that is beautiful.” He complimented as he got into the bed running his hands over my ass and down my flanks. As his hands came back up, he spread my derriere checks and started to gently lap at my asshole. 

It may not have been something I’d originally thought I would even like, but the truth of the matter was that whenever Blaine applied his lips and tongue to any part of me there was no like...only love. Yet, when he licked me there, it felt even better, even more erotic than when he sucked my dick. Blaine’s tongue was magic. He could penetrate me with it as if it were a small dick. As he licked and stroked his tongue in and out of my ass, I became one of the less pejorative names homosexuals were called as I grabbed one of the pillows and bit down on it to silence my cries and screams. I had played right into Blaine’s plan when I’d angled my body so that my ass was on my side of the bed near the top. He was able to reach into my drawer and grab out some lube and a condom. When he entered me, I heard a choir of the entire female cast of My Six Hundred Pound Life singing inside my head. My control was well and truly over. Our screams echoed around the room and the physical evidence of my orgasm shot across our bed in the copious amounts that could only come from true and complete, almost exhaustive, satisfaction. 

Despite our rather fastidious natures, Blaine and I had gotten quite accustomed to sleeping in our bed even on nights when it was covered in our cum. Poor Blaine barely had the energy to rid himself of the condom, before he too fell into the bed with me. We showered together the next morning after our workouts. We were still doing our exercises separately as I was working with Brittany every morning. A fact that Ms. July, my Dance and Movement professor at NYADA was quite happy with. Routine days have a way of rushing by even as they drag on. Classes at both my schools were informative and I was learning a lot that would definitely benefit me as soon as I entered the work force. But even more styling Mercedes, Noah and Sam taught me a lot. 

Noah and Sam had both gone to the barber that their image consultant recommended and they both looked amazing. Sam’s hair was its natural sandy blonde color with just some sparing lighter blond highlights. Noah’s hair was about three quarters of an inch long all over…the Mohawk gone, and yet he seemed lighter and happier somehow. Since the night was primarily about Cedes, they had each decided to wear black sport coats with jeans and white shirts. Sam had gone with a V neck tee shirt and Puck had gone with a button down shirt that was left open at the collar. However, Mercedes and I had spent quite some time getting her look exactly right. Once they had finally put to bed the last of the twenty five tracks they had recorded for their album, she and I had pored over what we had hoped to create for her style versus the things available to us commercially.

It was that endeavor that showed me that things were not all well in the land of Mercedes, but she refused to acknowledge there was a problem. She was trying and failing at pretending that everything was fine. But I could tell from the dresses she was selecting that she wasn’t in a good head space. The dresses were all very pre-Commune Mercedes. They were nothing at all like the clothes she’d begun to wear since she had gained confidence in her sexuality and beauty. To be honest I wasn’t sure that we would find anything that we both liked that was all it should be for her first record release party. In my spare time I’d have to try to design something that she could wear the night KAMA’s first album dropped. That dress would need to be spectacular. I couldn’t wait until I could actually devote my time to creating all the fashions for her big events...I can envision her dress for their first Grammys already, perhaps I can speak with my Fashion Art and Design instructor, it could certainly count as a final project for my spring class.

Still I was rather worried about Mercedes. She was hiding something and not just from me. Noah and Sam were worried as well. Santana had gotten to the point that she was talking about turning their study into an interrogation room. Apparently our Latina friend doesn’t like not knowing what was bothering people she cares about. I tried not to feel worried or slighted by the fact that Cedes hadn’t shared her concerns, but when I realized that she was keeping it internal to the point of excluding her lovers as well, I knew that it must be something she needed to deal with herself for a while before she could share. After the Karofsky situation before I transferred to Dalton, I knew that I couldn’t try to take the moral high ground on the whole ‘a problem shared is a worry halved’ thing. Besides some voice deep inside me was saying that everything would be just fine. Then I realized that I’d been so focused on styling Cedes and her guys, I’d forgotten about Blaine and me. I would need to go shopping. I needed something fabulously fashionable, it would not do to have anyone there not see how much I was able to bring to the friendship table with Mercedes and her new life…especially not me. The last thing I wanted was to be seen as her gay best friend who was trying to ride her coat tails, or worse a talentless hanger on. I was going to do my best to be as supportive and helpful as Mercedes had always been to me. I just wish that didn’t mean that sometimes I had to not press her for details until she was ready to share them.


	4. Masterpiece (Jessie J) & Thrift Shop (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ****THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****  
> The more I hear about this last season of Glee the more I realize that it is a very good thing I’m not still watching. RIB and his writers can each collectively and individually kiss my big black ass. SamCedes is EndGame. If they can’t see that then they need new, not stupid, eyes.  
> Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories   
> Special thanks to KayBee80 & Illiandyanndra who have been Beta rock stars for all of my ten stories

Masterpiece (Jessie J)  
Mercedes PoV

All my life my Grandma Mae told me that I needed to ‘stop trying to borrow trouble’. I truly didn’t think that was what I did. To my way of thinking, it was a simple fact of life that whenever things were going really well for me, some part of the universe would ultimately show me that I wasn’t anything all that special. I just felt that my life went a lot more smoothly when I prepared ahead for that fact. The first few months in New York had gone amazingly well. Sure, we were running ourselves half ragged trying to attend Columbia full time, Juilliard part time, record an album and fulfill Sam and Noah’s contractual obligations to BMG. I mean our unconventional relationship was actually the easiest thing we had to manage...even with Noah suddenly discovering that he had a hormonal season himself. While Sam’s fell during the summer, Puck’s just happened to fall in the middle of October... but for the most part I really did think we were managing everything successfully. At least I did until we agreed to do the Madison Square Garden Halloween concert for Warner…from there; everything seemed to quickly snowball out of control. 

My life was suddenly more complicated and busy and hectic than I was really able to deal with. Worst of all, I was hiding that fact from everyone, even Sam and Noah. My classes were going fine. After midterms, I had high B to low As in everything. They probably would have been higher, but I pretty much missed a whole day of review after the Halloween concert. My period was supposed to come the following week and then I was scheduled to get my next shot the week after that at the campus health center. Only Aunt Flow never arrived. I was tired, cranky, my breasts hurt all to be damned, I was nauseous and everything, but not even the very light period that I’d been getting with the shot came. There was no other way to say it; I was freaked out. But I also knew that with since we were in the middle of Midterms, there was no way I could bother Sam or Noah. Sam would have more than enough to deal with…stress, tests, and papers were all bad for his learning disability. The last thing he needed on top of all that was a ‘hey, I’m late’ discussion. I couldn’t bring myself to tell Puck without telling Sam and if I didn’t tell either of them, I sure as hell wasn’t telling anyone else. So instead, I kept it all bottled up and I worried and I fretted and I got so nervous I threw up, which only made me more worried. It was one hell of a vicious cycle. 

I did have distractions, thank goodness. We were rapidly approaching the SongBird soundtrack release party where KAMA had to do our song from the soundtrack and I would be doing at least one of my solos and performing my maid featured duet with Jill. Anika, Kurt, Bubbie and I were getting the fashions ready for those performances while Puck, Sam and I were getting the songs prepped. We hadn’t really performed ‘The Fighter’ since we’d recorded it before we left LA. Thankfully Jill and the Weitz Brothers were doing most of the promotional stuff. Though I had been called on to do a few early morning radio interviews with Jill for the soundtrack. 

On top of all of that, that Monday I was completely embroiled in the video shoot for the first song that was going to be released from the SongBird movie soundtrack. It was interesting to say the least. Much like during regular filming, I was up at the ass crack of dawn. I showered, moisturized, packed a bag of foundation garments that could work with several different styles of dresses, pulled on some black panties and a functional black bra. Then I threw on some yoga pants, one of Sam’s long sleeve tee shirts, one of Puck’s not-yet-mutilated-to-show-off-his-guns sweatshirts, along with cute sneakers and made my way to Brooklyn to the Windmill Studios Lot. I was in hair and makeup by seven. Thankfully they did some magic to make my Pocahontas weave look more like the shorter cut that would be equated with the character’s look. They also played with the makeup look so that I would look a little more like Lillian than like Mercedes. But that was something that had happened every morning of filming…it wasn’t as if they were doing prosthetic pieces or anything, just playing with colors that I never really thought to utilize or thought too edgy for me. 

Jill wasn’t far behind me, but she looked way more awake than I was feeling that morning. “Girl, you look like you are running yourself ragged. But a little birdie told me that your recorded tracks are all in final edits, so soon you’ll be able to put to bed your first album…that has to make it at least a little better…right?”

“It really does, but I could definitely use a vacation soon.” I admitted. 

Jill laughed. “Oh sweetie…I hate to break it to you, but you are at least three or four years out from getting a real break. First you have to get out the debut album. You’re gonna be doing promotion and, hopefully, three to four videos off that album. Then there is the opening act tour. Then you’ve gotta write and record your sophomore album and hope and pray that shit sells too. Another round of promos and videos then a middle card tour. In the middle of that tour cycle you’ll be doing either a duets album or a Christmas/holiday album…usually those don’t get a whole lot of fan fair…just a video or two. But they are definitely money in the bank. Then after that you have to put out a third album. This time you have to try to top the sales of the previous two or you won’t be getting a fourth. Again you need to do videos, promotional, and the tour, headlining this time which is a headache of its own. Then you can probably have a nice break…but since you’re handling your college stuff too…that might be five or six years out.” 

I groaned. “Just what I needed to hear this morning.” 

Jill shrugged unconcernedly. “Just keepin’ it one hundred. This life we lead looks good from the outside, but it sure as hell ain’t for the weak at heart.”

“No one has ever called my black ass weak...short, yeah…but weak never.” I returned with a chuckle. Soon our makeup was finished, our hair was on point and we were lead to wardrobe. The video concept was amazingly simple. We would start of at different sides of the sound stage in front of a huge green screen. We were to walk towards each other slowly and of course on beat singing as we went. We would do it in three different gowns. The first gowns were both shades of blue. Jill’s gown was floor length with a deep décolletage and chevron ruching to beading and sequins at the center of her torso. It was highlighted with a faux fur, thigh length coat in a matching blue. My own gown was slightly darker and it was heavily beaded. The one shoulder gown hugged my curves as tightly as humanly possible and to be honest I was kind of scared that some of the singing I would need to do would pop the darts the wardrobe mistress had added to make it truly body conforming. Since we were walking over and over again, our shoes were actually designed for function rather than form. Granted they were still high heels, so it did still hurt some eventually, but after about thirty repetitions of the song -we only had to sing for real twice- we were sent to have a little break and change. 

The next thirty times we heard our voices come over the speakers, we were in red. My dress was true cherry red shantung silk with cap sleeves, a square neckline and weirdly flattering pleating and draping over the bodice and waist. The skirt hugged my hips and thighs, but skimmed my calves with extra volume that made you wonder at first if there was a bustle or cape behind me. Ms. Scott’s dress was completely fierce. It was a little oranger a shade of red than mine, but of the same material. It hugged her curves and the long sleeves were tightly wrapped as well. The bodice was a shawl collar that again showed her girls off to the very best advantage. While my weave was hella curly and down, Jill’s long natural hair was braided into intricate updos. The last run through we were both in black and in wigs that were styled exactly like we’d worn our hair when shooting the film. Jill’s dress was another body con dress with a plunging neckline and mermaid skirt. It was simply elegant and totally dramatic. My dress was a simple, one shoulder empire waist gown with skirts that were layers of chiffon over a body skimming layer of silk. For six hours we walked and sang, then we got changed back into our street clothes and let them work their magic while we had a very late lunch. Before we broke for the day, we saw the filmed scenes that would play behind us; some were famous mothers and their daughters, or famous daughters and their mothers, including the song’s writer Jessica Cornish aka Jessie J and her mother. There were women who had been ‘born female’ and transgender women. Interspersed in those were scenes from SongBird. The mini-movie really was a testament to the love of mothers and daughters.

Ms. Scott gave me a ride back to Harlem. She and I laughed the whole way there. She was actually supposed to be having dinner with some friends at Ginny’s Supper Club. Since she had some time to kill she asked if she coluld see the house. I gladly gave her the full tour. Thankfully, all my friends behaved themselves…even Santana. Jill was very kind and took pictures with everyone who asked her and she talked with Jamie about her dreams and NYADA. I was getting used to how just cool Jill Scott really was, and by the time she left to go get dressed, our whole household loved her. 

The next day we were once more up with the chickens. We made it to Warner’s offices by seven thirty and took a limo with Anika and Christophe over to Brooklyn Bridge and the accompanying park for the actual shoot. They had everything ready for us when we got there. Hair and makeup was kept really simple for the first shots. I was decked out in an above the knee silver body con dress with little to no cleavage but gorgeous embellishments to keep it very interesting, black heels, wavy hair and a bold fuchsia lip. Sam and Puck were both shirtless in jeans that were open at the waistband. For the first shot, we were standing on the bridge’s iconic walk way each of them leaning their backs against one of my shoulders, Sam on my right and Noah on my left. They took a few serious faces then had us looking smiling and happy and a few more where the guys were giving me their best ‘come hither’ looks. Then they had us stand with the guys facing the camera, but angled towards me. I was facing away, but throwing a sensual smile back at the camera over my shoulder. My arms were around their waists and they each had a hand on my backside. Their own smiles were very devilish. Then they asked for a shot. Without a word to each other, they both dropped to their knees and kissed my hips. I don’t know who laughed more at that one, me or the photographer. 

After that we changed into black and white outfits. I was in a white dress with black sides giving me a damn near perfect looking hourglass silhouette. Noah was in black slacks with a black vest and tie and simple white business shirt with the sleeves rolled up. Sam’s black and white look was harsher. He was wearing black jeans and a black leather jacket with a plain white tee under it. We each took solo shots in the black and white outfits. The shots were taken in the park with the Manhattan sky line behind us. The photographer also a group shot of us still in the black and white outfits but where we were each in different parts of the frame, looking around as if we were each there by our self. We were then posed on the bridge in pretty much the same poses all over again in the black and white. 

Another wardrobe change and we all were in black leather jackets. My jacket covered a black patent leather bustier which was paired with black suede pants and boots. Puck’s covered a heather gray vee neck and black leather jeans. They just had Sam change into a dark gray graphic tee; the rest of his outfit was the same as the black and white look. They rolled a purple piano into place so that I could sit at it and have the skyline behind me. That picture turned out amazing, but oh God did sitting in those tight ass black suede pants hurt all to be damned. They set up a white wall and had Puck sit in front of it with a guitar and then did the same with Sam. They then had Sam and Noah put their feet up on the piano bench on either side of me and told us to look as if we were working on a song together. 

The final wardrobe change saw them putting in more black. This time for me it was black skinny jeans, a slightly more comfortable black satin bustier and a black quilted satin bolero jacket. I did get to wear a fucking awesome pair of six inch, black leather Louboutin pumps. That was totally worth the ill conceived suede pants. I was posed a million different ways always alone. Puck was in black jeans a black blazer and black tee, with black Sketchers. He went through the same amount of poses before he was released and allowed to get back into his street clothes. For the totally solo pics, Sam was dressed in charcoal slacks, a black vee neck pullover and black dress shoes. By the end of the shoot he was complaining about his feet so bad I wanted to make him rock the Louboutins that Anika had gifted me with at the end of the shoot…five minutes in those and he would be loving his ‘uncomfortable’ men’s dress shoes. 

Unfortunately even dealing with several distractions can be pretty fleeting. All too soon I was forced back to my reality. For the better part of the following week I kept the fact that I thought I was pregnant to myself, trying to find comfort where I could. I talked to my grandmother and great aunts on the phone, pretending like I was just updating them with how school was going and how life in New York was shaping up. Not one of them said anything about having any dreams involving fish or death. I did find out that Felicia was on bed rest and would be until she gave birth. She and Gabbie were due about the same time, but Gabbie was having a much easier pregnancy. Still, while I was majorly happy that Felicia was finally getting the baby she had dreamed of and ached for for so long, I didn’t want to talk about pregnancies or babies. I was very relieved to hear that none of them, not even Aunt Bee or Grandma had had any prophetic dreams. 

I didn’t really relax until the Friday of the week after midterms. I kept the appointment that I had made during orientation when we toured the health center to get my next depo shot. I held my breath while I peed in the cup and had my blood drawn for my blood work. The wait was interminable. Those were the longest twenty minutes of my freakin’ life. When the RN came to give me my results, she was all smiles and chipperness. “Well as expected, you’re not pregnant, though you are presenting with some mild anemia and Vitamin D deficiency. I’d like to see you taking a multivitamin and getting an extra thirty minutes of sunlight every day.” The breath of air that I released when she said I wasn’t pregnant was harsh and ruffled her papers. I was just that relieved. “I take it that you were worried about pregnancy?” she asked with a small grin. 

“It just that my period didn’t come, at all.” I murmured. 

She nodded. “That will eventually happen with the depo provera and according to the records your doctor sent in, you’ve been on it for over a year. Stress and major life changes have been known to cause hiccups in women’s cycles as well. Moving to college, is a big change and really can be stressful...you wouldn’t be the first girl to have her cycle thrown off by all these changes.” 

She gave me my depo shot and an infusion of iron to help with the anemia that she felt was the cause of my fatigue. When I left that office I was feeling damn near high I was so happy. As much as I would love any child of Sam and Noah’s, I also knew that it was way too soon and we were entirely too busy to have that child right then. I was so happy that I needed to go shopping and I had the best excuse for why. I still needed to perfect my look for the soundtrack drop party and the dress that Kurt and I had thought would be perfect when I was feeling some kind of way thinking I’d fucked up our whole future just wasn’t doing it for me any longer. Originally we’d decided upon a sweetly demure Marina Rinaldi cocktail dress in a pretty shade of salmon. It was the exact opposite of how I felt when with Noah and Sam. It was a Sunday go to meeting dress. I needed something with a wow factor, something that, while not blatant or over the top, was sexy and hot. 

But even before I could go shopping, I needed to have a talk with my guys. I realized that I probably hadn’t done as great a job hiding my fear and angst from my guys as I’d have hoped…rather they had assumed that I would come to them when I was ready to let them know what was wrong. So I texted them and asked them if they would like to go on a real date that evening. They both said yes, so during my next class break, I tried to make the arrangements. My attempts to find the perfect date night restaurant were thwarted by the short notice. I wanted to go somewhere nice but not super expensive. Unfortunately that wasn’t happening. Finally in a fit of desperation, I called Bubbie Ruth. “Help…I need to take the guys out on a date tonight. We need to have a talk and we need to celebrate. I was trying to, you know, Do it Like A Dude and get us reservations and plan everything. I’ve got nothing. I was hoping for Amour de La Vie again…it’s where we went for our first New York date junior year, but they are closed all weekend for some big family event.” 

Ruth Mayzer just laughed at me. “First of all take a deep breath and relax. Are you looking for somewhere dressy, or somewhere casual?” 

“Kind of in between. I want to wear a nice dress…I want to find a place where we can eat and dance and talk like we did that night.” I told her honestly. “Everything has been so crazy that we could so use some down time.”

Bubbie was quiet for a long moment. “Alright. I’ve got a few friends I can call. But you might want to mentally prepare yourself despite what TV would have you believe, the lower upper crust places fill up first.” 

“I’ll wear my prom dress if I have to.” I assured her. “We haven’t had a date night since we got here and I think we need this. Plus, I may have been shutting them out the last week or two. Not intentionally at all, but I’ve gotta make it up to them.” 

“I know. Noah has called me every single day for the last two weeks to see if you’d told me what was wrong. It got so bad, yesterday he had me and poor Mills on a three way conference call to see if you had told us what he and or Sam had done wrong. So do I need to be preparing to help you three turn the boys man cave into a nursery?” She teased.   
I groaned. “No…I thought I might have been…but it was apparently just stress, anemia and a slight Vitamin D deficiency.” 

I could almost hear her nodding. “Which any of the moms in your life could have told you if you’d actually asked. Mae called me dying laughing about how pitiful you were, trying to see if any of them had had any pregnancy dreams without confessing that you were worried that you thought you were pregnant.” Bubbie Ruth giggled. 

“I was scared.” I finally admitted. 

Bubbie sighed. “We know you were scared, but what was your plan if the test had been positive? You have a support system…But Hot Chocolate…you have gotta to learn to lean on us when you need to.” 

“Yeah, but my support system is full of people that I want to make proud and certainly never disappoint.” I told her honestly. “I’d have either had to ask y’all not to tell the parents, which would have been wrong, or I would have had to tell the parents myself, which could have easily gotten us in huge trouble even though we’ve pretty much been following all the rules.” 

“Which your parents would have taken into consideration. I hope that you believe me when I say that while your parents are hoping that you will not get pregnant before you graduate college, they will understand if you do as long as you were not actively not trying not to get pregnant before you all finish your degrees.” Bubbie Ruth said wisely. 

I thought about it for a long moment. “You’re right. I’m trying so hard to be grown up, but then just when I needed to show maturity, I turned back into a fourteen year old kid.”  
Bubbie laughed her ass off at me. When she finally caught her breath she assured me that everyone had those moments. “I was married and had been in my own home for years. I’d even had some trouble conceiving and was sure that my mother would be happy for me…and I still had a mini-freak out about telling her. Now you aren’t in the same place, so I’m sure that your anxiety was even worse, but I want to make a deal with you. If you have another scare, I want you to promise that you will call and talk to me or you will call and talk to Mae. Either of us will help you and support you no matter what. We will even keep it to ourselves, no questions, no judgment.” I felt my eyes fill with tears. I’m very rarely emotional. But that was definitely touching. I promised and thanked her for loving me as well as Grandma Mae. “Mercedes Jones, one day you’re gonna realize that you became my grandbaby the second you brought my Noah back from the brink of becoming just another no good, trashy ass Puckerman. Now hang up…I’ll call you back when I have you guys some reservations.”

As I waited for Bubbie Ruth to work her magic, I allowed my mind to wander to what I could wear if the place was fancier than I’d originally thought of. That mental path led me to trying to think if what I should be looking for to wear for the drop party. I texted Santana, Kurt and Mills, then I considered texting Jamie for a hot minute, but I decided not to. Chances were very good that the shopping trip would involve a lot of talking about what had been going on in my head space over the last couple of weeks, and while Jamie was cool and a good shopping buddy we weren’t ‘share the pregnancy scare’ close. Mills hit me back first. She wouldn’t be able to make it. She had three appointments that morning and then she and Saul had plans for the afternoon and evening. However, Santana and Kurt were both in. 

Kurt’s reply text showed me exactly how not well I had hidden my worries from my friends. ‘Oh good. I’m glad that you are feeling more like yourself again. We need to find you something smoking hot.’

Santana’s response was far more straight-forward. ‘Yeah, I’m down and your ass bets to be ready to share with the class WTF is wrong with you. I was about one day from going straight up Snix on you.’

Despite their differing responses, I sent them both the same reply, ‘Taking my husbands out for dinner and dancing tonight, will confess all to them. I’ll clue you in tomorrow while we shop.’

I’d no sooner hit send than Bubbie Ruth hit me back. ‘Alright…you’ve got eight thirty reservations at The Place, 310 West Fourth Street. Dress is upper end of casual, trendy fashion will work. Then Deborah was able to hook you up with tickets to Girls and Boys at Webster Hall. Take your Columbia IDs…she said something about how you might get something off drinks. You can tell the rest to meet you at Webster Hall…they will love it.’  
I couldn’t wait. I promised Bubbie that I would be sure to thank her in my Grammy speech and hustled my ass to class. I’d be a little late but it was well worth it. As soon as I could, I texted Noah and Sam that we had eight thirty reservations at a great restaurant in Chelsea. I completely rushed them home after colloquium, kissing them in a flurry of unabashed PDAs on the subway and then commandeered the shower. When I came out, they were both finishing up at the sink. “So it looks like someone has gotten out of their funk.” Sam teased as he rinsed the evidence of his five o’clock shadow down the sink. 

“Oh, most definitely.” I assured him. “I’ll tell y’all about it at dinner.” I said as I rodded my weave. 

Noah pulled me back against his chest. “I’m gonna hold you to that…but just for now…did Sam or Me do anything to have caused said funk?” 

I shook my head solemnly. “I promise; this one was all on me. You and Sam didn’t do anything wrong.” 

“Okay.” they both said very relieved. Before they got in the shower to get cleaned up, they helped me lotion. I did my makeup and headed to my closet. I dug through my lingerie and decided to go all the way out in the whole sexy factor. I shrugged into a watermelon colored Isabella shelf bra from the Hips & Curves site Felicia had turned me onto with her gift card. I even put in the silicone bumps that would make my breasts assured continued presence in the really demi cups even more precarious. But they increased the ‘sit up and beg’-ability of my cleavage. I forwent the matching panties, but added the accompanying garter belt and black, lace top, seam up the back stockings. I wiggled into a black lace and leopard print vintage look pencil dress that stopped about an inch or so above my knees. I grabbed my shoes and purse and headed out into the bedroom for a zip up, which Sam was so happy to give me, pressing kisses to my back as he did so. After I packed the essentials into my adorable MK mini purse, I slid my feet into the matching MK, black leather Hamilton five inch heels I’d spent two hours last August convincing Mom to allow me to bring with me.   
I looked over at Sam and Noah and they were both decked out just as nicely. Sam was rocking a deep gray suit with a very light lavender shirt and gun metal and purple tie, while Puck was his chocolate brown suit with a light ivory shirt and rich burgundy tie. “Oh damn, Babygirl you are looking fine as hell tonight.” He moaned when I returned from taking the curlers from my hair having brushed it into Bardot waves. 

“You are always so beautiful, but tonight you are completely gorgeous.” Sam agreed. “I think we’re gonna have to drive. If we go on the subway with you looking like that, we’d never make it to the restaurant. We’d end up killing somebody.” 

I laughed. “We’re gonna have to drive anyway…these shoes were not meant for walking.” 

“So grab some you can dance in and then we need to head out.” Puck pointed out. “Traffic is killer.”

We headed down and ran into Kurt and Blaine who were heading out for dinner themselves. I told them about the Webster Hall thing and they said they would probably meet us there. I’d never been so grateful that we were so close to the garage as I was that night. Then the happiness just kept coming, the traffic seemed to all be on the other side until we got to about Tenth and then the restaurant had valet so we made it to the Madre D with three minutes to spare. Since we were pretty exactly on time, we were shown right to our table. The restaurant was very pretty, with a sweet, candlelit ambience. They were kind and personable. Our waiter was very attentive and not leery at all. 

“Good evening, welcome to The Place. My name is Oliver and I will be your waiter this evening. Would you like to start off with something to drink?” 

We place both our drink and appetizer order. Given the nature of the restaurant, I let Sam and Puck have the lead. They ordered me a glass of sparkling water and some sweet iced tea while ordering cokes for both of them. Sam ordered us each a different salad and Noah asked the waiter to bring us an order of the pan seared scallops to share. As he left with our order I told my men the reason I’d been so out of it the two weeks that we’d all been going through some shit. “I’m so sorry that I didn’t tell you, but I just…I don’t know why I didn’t. I guess I just thought that I could save you from worrying too.” 

Sam sighed. “Mercy…I just don’t know what to do with you.” He shook his head. “How many times are you gonna try to shoulder all the burdens of the world all by yourself?” 

“I…don’t mean to.” I admitted. “It’s just that I don’t like to be a burden…” 

Noah shook his head. “No, you still worry that everyone is like Berry and only interested in you for what you can do for them, and that they will drop you if you prove to be too much trouble. Well get over it. Cause we aren’t going anywhere.” 

I shook my head. “I’m not worried that you two are going anywhere. But I was worried that I was fucking everything up.” I told him, told them both, hoping I could make them understand. 

“I’m not the smartest guy in the world, but I do know that you can’t get yourself pregnant. So it wouldn’t have been you ‘fucking everything up,’ it would have been all of us. And we would have dealt with it.” Sam chided. “You can’t keep pushing us away to protect your heart Darlin’. You were worried that we’d hear that you were pregnant…and yeah it would ruin the plans we’ve made…but part of that worry, maybe not even consciously was the wonder if we’d stick with you. You hear how we can’t wait until we can have children with you and yet you ain’t listening.” I started to interrupt but he stopped me. “Now I ain’t saying that we’re gonna do it anytime soon. I figure twenty-eight to thirty would be a good age to become parents…but if it happens sooner, we’re here. If it never happens, we’re here. If we have sextuplets, we’re here. Get that through your hard head.” 

I gave them a watery smile as Oliver arrived with our drinks. He quickly sat those down in front of each of us; before placing a scots kale, drake feta and roasted beet salad with heirloom red and golden beets tossed in scots kale set over a roasted sweet potato emulsion with an aged balsamic vinaigrette in front of me, and two arugula salads with shaved parmesan and a mustard seed dressing in front of Sam and Puck. Then he disappeared like smoke only to reappear with three small plates and the pan seared diver scallops which were served over roasted celery-root puree, with crispy prosciutto, Brussels sprout leaves and a port wine reduction. A moment after he turned away, Noah started to smile…then chuckle…then laugh. “I cannot believe that you forgot that the shot was gonna turn off the Crimson Wave. I don’t know about Sammy Boy, but I’ve been waiting on that shit to stop coming for a while because I know Sam and you have some issues with boning during your issue…but your ass forgot.” 

I looked down at my salad only to have my head snap back up involuntarily as Sam’s laughter joined Puck’s. “You’re both wrong for laughing.” I grumbled before I found myself joining the chuckles. We settled in to eat our salad and appetizer talking and chatting.   
Sam and Noah caught me up on the things I had missed while I’d been checked out. “Santana was ready to pull out the Chinese water torture to figure out what the hell was going on in your head. Luckily for you Brittany kept distracting her.”

“I’ll talk to her tomorrow. We’ve gotta go shopping for me a new dress for the drop party. I don’t know what crack I was smoking but there was absolutely no sexy at all in that dress I ordered.” I said fiercely. 

Puck shrugged. “It will be nice for church, or if you have to sing at a wedding or something.” 

“The dress is pretty, but it isn’t what I expected you to choose for an industry event after everything you said to Anika.” Sam concurred. “Could you look for something in red?”  
I rolled my eyes. “You don’t think that red makes me look like the Koolaid Man?”

Puck’s whole face tightened as he frowned. “You look hot in red. It makes you look like cherry covered chocolate...totally edible. But I say make sure it has a neckline like that dress. I get hard as hell every time you lean forward.”

Sam nodded. “Oh yeah, and form fitting, gotta get more members for the fan club for Dat Ass.” He smirked. “Blaine managed to get the club a presence on Twitter, Instagram and FaceBook already.”

“You have gotta be kidding me.” I groaned. 

They both shook their heads. “That blogger who mistook you from Nikki Minaj when we met with Lyor over Christmas break, he was the first non-McKinley Member.” Noah said with a puckish grin. 

Probably I would have thrown a piece of beet at him, but Oliver popped back up to take our entree orders. Noah looked things over and smiled. “The Scallops were great, so we might as well continue with the seafood theme. How is the seafood chowder?” 

“It is wonderful tonight. Often I find that it has a little too much potato in it, but tonight the delivery was short on potatoes, so it is absolutely perfect.” Oliver said with a smile. 

“Cool. Is there a way we can get one bowl and three spoons, we’ll share? Our boo will have the fettuccini, Sam,” he gestured at our shared man, “will have the pork medallions, and I’ll have the strip steak.” He finished. 

“Very well…” Oliver seemed a little thrown from the whole ‘our boo’ thing but he didn’t let it stop him from being professional. “And can I go ahead and put in your dessert or we can wait until you see if you’re going to have room?” 

Sam, Noah and I exchanged looks. I let them have the decision. They were running this part of the evening, I’d made the arrangements and I’d be paying from my separate account, but they seemed to have enjoyed making the decisions on the other two courses. Finally Sam spoke up. “We’ll go ahead and order dessert now. Can you please bring us the bread pudding with three spoons?” 

Oliver nodded and made a suggestion. “If you like traditional bread pudding, you will probably enjoy ours, but I find it even better when with paired with the crème brulee.”   
Noah and I nodded and Sam added it to the order and we continued to chat and talk while we finished our salads. “So Webster Hall is supposed to be iconic. What is ‘Girls and Boys’ though?” Puck asked with a grin. 

“It’s the Friday night Club night…they have Pop Rox in the Marlin room and Hip Hop and Reggae in the Balcony lounge.” I told them. “I looked it up after Bubbie told me that we had tickets. Are we going to go home so you guys can change?”

“I thought about you poor feet dancing in those heels, but I didn’t think about the fact that we probably wouldn’t want to go to the club in suits.” Puck admitted. 

Sam shrugged. “I guess we can go and change. I doubt clubs here get going before eleven or twelve.” That was easily agreed on. “So Mercy, Baby…what else haven’t you told us?”

I smirked. I’d been hoping for an opening like that all night. “Well,” I started, getting my last bit of the delicious salad on my fork, “I left the panties that match my bra in my lingerie chest.” I quickly put the food into my mouth as both of their jaws dropped open. They both knew that I would never wear panties that didn’t match on a night out. “Oh, but I am wearing the matching garter belt.” 

“Oi, you are a cheeky little monkey aren’t you?” Sam broke out his best English accent.  
Puck just licked his lips and looked around. I stopped him before he could put his thoughts into action. “Do not even try what you’re thinking about doing. Even if you get under the table without anyone seeing you, my dress might actually be even tighter than the one I had on for the performance…so there is no way you can possibly get your mouth on my lady parts.” 

He full on pouted, but any comment he might have made was cut off by the arrival of Oliver and a bus boy to clear the table. as soon as we were alone again, he shot back, “you cannot tell me shit like ‘I’m not wearing any panties’ and then tell me I can’t get down and lick the kitty cat.” He chastised. 

“Eat the expensive ass, culinary masterpieces that are being served to you by Oliver. You can eat me later.” I teased. 

“I wanna eat you now and later.” Puck told me his voice ringing with honesty. 

Sam laughed. “Let’s just keep it real…when don’t we want to eat her. I’m sitting here thinking, wow this salad dressing tastes amazing, but it would taste even better if Mercy would let me lick it off her titties.”

My face was infused with heat, but it got even hotter when Oliver made his presence known as he checked our drink levels and replaced the silverware we’d already used. Thankfully he was a consummate professional and just told us that our dinner would be out shortly. When he walked away I glared at both of my men. “I cannot believe you two just did that to that poor guy.”

They looked at each other across the table. “Oh Darlin’, I’m looking at this very romantic restaurant, trust and believe that he has probably heard a lot worst.” 

“Yeah, Sammy Boy’s right. Besides, you brought us here looking like that, smelling all good…you had to be trying to seduce us. Well congratulations…you succeeded.” Puck smirked over at me. “You can’t get mad at us for wanting you, when you went out of your way to make damn sure we wanted you more than ever.”

“Why is it that every time you tell me you want me you always add that ‘more than ever’.” I was really just curious. Even after a year and a half, there was still plenty about my men that I had to learn. Part of me wondered if I would ever stop learning new and interesting things about the way they thought.

“Because every day with you we fall just a little deeper in love with you.” Sam explained reasonably. 

“Yeah,” Noah agreed. “Plus there is the fact that every time we make love its better than the time before…so every time we want you a little bit more.”

Boy logic was kind of baffling but I accepted the compliment in the spirit with which it was given. I reached over and took both their hands trying to convey my happiness with a gentle squeeze to each. “Well then I want the two of you more each and every single day too.” 

Of course that was when Oliver showed up with our entrees. If he was even half as embarrassed at the conversational turns he kept walking into, I was going to have to tip him really, really well. I was served first. The plate he put in front of me was awesome looking. A bed of homemade fettuccine covered with several large tiger shrimp all served with shallots, wild mushrooms, green peas, pancetta and cherry tomatoes that had been tossed in a rich Chablis and Maine lobster broth. Sam’s dinner was every bit as appealing. He was given a plate of sliced Idaho potato with a sautéed red cabbage hash of currants, toasted almonds and wild mushrooms and a dijon mustard reduction on top of which sat three medallions of pork loin glazed and roasted with honey. Puck’s dinner was the last to be set down. He had ordered the char-grilled NY Angus strip steak, medium rare and it came with a potato pie that had gruyere, parmesan, cheddar and chives inside, plus wilted baby spinach and a natural jus. The seafood and petit pan squash chowder, which Oliver made sure to put in the center of the table with three soup spoons, was filled with Scottish salmon, lobster, calamari, shrimp, clams, mussels, and a smattering of cubed new potatoes in a herbed, fragrant broth. It was thick, rich and warm…perfectly seasoned, just like all three of the entrees and the scallops. 

By the time dessert came, I was fully ready to make ‘The Place’ our place, but Sam and Noah both reminded me that we were in a city known for its culinary scene as much as its fashion scene. They were right. While ‘The Place’ was really good, there were tons more that we could try on for size. The spiced pumpkin bread pudding with its accompanying Tahitian vanilla ice cream and a ginger crème anglaise and the traditional crème brulee with lavender essence were both amazing and to be honest if our entrees had been any bigger, it would have all been too much...but as it was we were pleasantly full. The only thing that caused Oliver any visible shock at all evening was when I took the check and handled it. I was pleasantly surprised to note that the total was actually under two hundred for all three of us. I rounded it up to two fifty including his tip and we gathered our things and headed to the valet. 

One think I really loved about New York was the fact that everywhere took credit or debit cards…even valets. But I did have to admit that given the rates, I was really glad that we were going to leave the Tahoe in the garage and take the train back to Webster Hall. We made it back to the house around eleven and Sam and Noah traded their suits for some club appropriate dark wash jeans and respective dark blue and light gray pullovers. I traded my five inch Michael Kors for a pair of cute suede leopard print MK ballet flats that Kurt had given me when he was apologizing for ditching me two years before. I toned down my look a little since I’d lost the heels and we were back out the door by eleven thirty. 

Webster Hall was every bit as cool looking as one would have expected. When we got there, Kurt and Blaine, Santana and Brittany were already waiting on us. Artie had flaked out on us in favor of completing a huge project for his film theory class. The club wasn’t super huge, but it was really cool. It looked pretty much like one would imagine. It actually looked quite a bit like a harder, grittier version of Club Exxcess, only Kurt and Blaine and Santana and Britts weren’t the only same sex couples making out on the dance floor. Hell, Sam, Puck and me weren’t the only trio out there. It was fucking awesome not to be stared at or commented on. To just be three lovers dancing and making out in a club like any other kids our age. We didn’t leave the Hall until almost six. 

We lucked out and there was a bagel place that was open and serving breakfast between the club and the subway station. Even Kurt ate like he was starving…when we made it home; we showered to rid ourselves of the sweat from dancing and the smell of the club fell into bed and made love until we literally couldn’t stay awake any longer. That night was exactly like I’d imagined living in New York would be, I felt like I’d glimpsed the future and the future was good.

Thrift Shop (Macklemore & Ryan Lewis)  
Santana PoV 

We didn’t get home until around the time we had originally planned to get up to go shopping for Mercedes’ ‘gots ta be better than the one she originally picked out’ dress. Artie was just finishing showering after pulling an all-nighter and he was good enough to wait on us to get into the bed. Sex with Artie is always fucking boss. He was creative and he was commanding…but not irritatingly so. He knew how to follow a command with something that would show me that he held me as his equal. His dick was big enough to always be a good ride and the things that boy could do with his fingers and mouth were actual and factual works of fucking art. Plus, he wasn’t adverse to cuddling after and drifting off to sleep without showering again after sex. So after fucking ourselves into a coma, what was supposed to be a morning spent shopping became an afternoon spent shopping. 

As soon as we got out of the house, I turned to Mercedes and growled. “Your ass betta not be pregnant.” Pregnancy had been the worst case scenario in my head for her mental absence and, to be honest, bad attitude the preceding few weeks. 

She shook her head. “Not pregnant…but I was scared as hell that I was. I didn’t get even the smallest hint of a period…and it scared me.” 

“Shit, was that all…I haven’t had a period since I was sixteen. The shot did away with that messy bitch after I was on it for about a year.” I told her with a grin. “So you got all scared and didn’t bother talking to anybody about it? What the fuck is wrong with you? What the fuck are we all living together and shit for if you’re not gonna fucking let us help your ol’ prideful ass when you need it? I’m trying to figure out how the fuck we were going to manage you having a baby already without fucking up the school shit. I almost called my Tia Dominiqua to see if she felt like being a nanny again.” 

Kurt just looked relieved. Probably a bit of that relief was that I stayed in English for my whole rant, but mostly because the problem was something simple and had already been resolved. “I’m a little sad. I saw the cutest little baby Burberry trench the other day.” He joked. “To be honest I kind of thought that you were upset by those Bs you got. That or I was worried that you had run yourself into the ground and were suffering some weird exhaustion/depression hybrid emotional state.” 

“Well, I’m not pregnant. I do have to take a multivitamin everyday ‘cause I have some moderate anemia, and I have to get more sunlight. Anemia causes fatigue and, apparently, Vitamin D deficiency causes anxiety which I’m totally claiming as my excuse for going a little crazy with the whole pregnancy scare thing.” Mercedes told us with a grin. 

I gave her a side eye… “Hold up…back up. How the hell are you supposed to get more sun? We live in a city where if a building doesn’t fully attempt to blot out the sun, you almost can’t get the permits. Then there is your schedule, you’re either in class or on the subway going to class or you’re in the studio or you’re on your way to the studio…sunlight is for people who don’t have shit to do.”

I could see that they agreed but they both still wanted to come up with some idea that would fix the problem. “You know, we could probably walk to Loehmann’s, check them out and then take the subway to some of the boutiques downtown.” Kurt suggested. It seemed like a good idea. Only problem was that they didn’t have shit that looked like Mercedes Jones. I mean, I found like three dresses and Kurt found some cute shirts, but Mercy left empty handed. Per the recommendation of one of the ladies we met in the racks at Loehmann’s we took the train to Hell’s Kitchen and checked out a place called Monif C’s. But that place was way too Coco Austin and nowhere near Mercedes Jones. However the store’s owner Monifa Clark was totally cool and she sent us over to Fashion to Figure. We found Cedes some cute date night shit there, but nothing that made us just say ‘yeah, that’s the one’. However the chick checking us out…literally and figuratively hipped us to Lee Lee’s Valise. Now that shop was all the way in Brooklyn, but Cedes left there with three new skirts, a new dress, some leggings and an incredible antiqued silver medallion necklace that she was determined was going to go with the dress she was going to find. The store clerk helped her find some earrings to match too.

After that we tried the big three; Macy’s, Barney’s and Bloomingdales. For the most part we’d all gotten our clothes not long after we’d received the invitations. Apparently when you held a record release party you invited everyone associated with the acts, including friends and family and any known fan group. Still Kurt was looking for something fashion forward to wear. He wanted to be the best dressed gay at the ball. I really like to shop and the money my Mami had transferred into my account when she learned about the shopping trip was burning a hole in my sexy as hell Calvin Klein tote bag…so we each bought something in all three. Of course our happy, carefree day of shopping ended up pissing off some jealous rent-a-cop or broke ass store clerk who decided to have us stopped since we could afford their shit and they couldn’t even with their employee discount. I got stopped and harassed by NYPD after Barney’s and Cedes got her turn after Bloomies. So since we were kind of pissed off after that bullshit, especially since we’d been flying pretty fucking high having found her the perfect shoes and those bitches being on sale, we decided to break for what was technically dinner…but really just lunch. Once we were full and a lot calmer, we found Avenue. 

Avenue was apparently the NYC predecessor for Lane Bryant. They had some cute stuff, but to be honest it had been six hours, like five or six trains, we had at least four or five bags each, and our significant others were about ready to send out the hounds…we were tired as hell. The fucking outfit was definitely coming together. We had found shoes. We had found jewelry. We had even found lingerie…we just hadn’t found the perfect dress. Then we started combing the racks at Avenue. Now over the course of the shopping excursion, Aretha had let slip certain things we needed to know about the dress. She really wanted a bold color, red or a nice royal blue or purple. She wanted to find something that made the most of her curves, that caressed the borders between subtle and overt sexuality. Given the statement piece she had chose for her necklace, we’d need either a deep v neck or a high boatneck…I immediately ditched the idea of a boat neck. When you had the ability to create cleavage like my chica Mercedes, it was a crime against God not to do so whenever called for. 

Finally we found three choices. One was a champagne colored, sequined mesh sheath dress with a kind of high collar and cap sleeves. While it looked great against her skin it was still really demure. The next dress was a gorgeous illusion lace cocktail dress that would skim her curves deliciously. It was a deep rose that looked almost like a metallic red. The metallic look lace was laid over an opaque silk sheath that covered from cleavage down to mid thigh. That dress made Cedes’ ass look like candy. But it didn’t work with the accessories that we’d already bought…so while she bought it, it wasn’t the dress for the event we were trying to dress her for. The final dress she came out in was absolutely perfect. It was a bright, bold cherry red, had a wide, semi-deep v neckline with pin-tuck detailing and sleeves that would stop at her elbows. It was ruched from right under her breasts down to the knee length hem, which Kurt immediately decided needed to be brought up to mid thigh. In fact other than the sleeves, the only part of the dress that weren’t ruched or pleated looking was the material that would cover her actual tits. That shit was going to make her already huge bazoongas look even bigger. 

When we checked out, I was shocked and appalled when she had each dress rung up separately. Then she explained. “Mrs. Abrams told me to always get industry event clothing I bought myself on a separate receipt so that I could claim it as a work related expense.” 

“Damn, I wanna be like you when I grow the hell up.” I teased. “But right now I just want to get our asses home. I cannot believe we’ve been shopping for like seven or eight hours, after only getting like three or four hours of sleep.” 

“Oh I can believe we did it…I just can’t believe we didn’t kill each other.” Kurt returned with a chuckle.

We got home ate dinner and crashed…hard. The next week or so flew and crawled by. I’ve gotta confess school, even school I wanted to go to, bored the fuck out of me. If I hadn’t had Artie and Britts keeping my ass going, I know that I would have dropped out. My grades weren’t the problem, I just didn’t like going to class and taking notes and all that shit. But with all of us together it became a fucking pride thing. If fucking Puck was sticking things out, my ass had no choice at all. I had to stay in school and go to class and bust those fuckers out the water with the level of knowledge this Midwestern Latina brought to their world. With everything that was going on in the house though, it made shit outside of class time fly by. That last week before Thanksgiving was no different. 

Monday through Thursday we were living in the land of the college student. Friday, after classes, we had dinner together for what seemed like the first time in a while. Then we all vegged out on the couches in Commune and Klaine’s family room and binge watched ‘The Originals’. That show rocked for all of us. It had fine ass men…so the girls and Klaine were happy. It had vampires so Sam and Robonerd were happy. And Puck was happy because ‘Retha got all hot and bothered watching the sexy vampires. Saturday was a wash; Mercedes spent all fucking day at Ricki’s getting her weave redone. Art-man, Britts and I dropped her off while we were on our way to Costco’s. It was our turn to buy toilet paper and paper towels for the house. Between the two halves of the duplex, we had like seven and a half bathrooms; we went through an entire assload of fucking Charmin. Every month each triad or Klaine was responsible for going to either Sam’s Club or Costco and stocking up for the next month. 

Walking through the big box store was fun as hell. There was a plethora of different samples and it was totally worth skipping breakfast to have room for all the free food. While we were there we also grabbed two bags of every type of freezer fruit and veggies and all the crap Cedes and Kurt needed to make the smoothies they had gotten us all addicted to. They usually bought whole fruits and berries from some super toi-toi restaurant supplying uber marketplace, then they cleaned them and cut them all up and froze them in ziplock bags…but life had become entirely too hectic. Nobody had time for all that shit. I wish the rest of the weekend was more exciting, but it was filled with shopping, cleaning and working on our projects. The only fun we had that whole day was boning. Sunday we had to go and pick up my parents and the Abrams. The Pierces would arrive early Wednesday morning. 

Monday, after classes, Mami and Gwen went with ‘Retha, Brittany and me to do a spa evening. We started immediately after classes with massages at the Harlem Holistic Health Center. Alexson was recommended by Sue….and by recommended I mean she had told us that if we allowed anyone other than him to massage one of her Cheerios she would fly to New York and kick our asses. We weren’t sure if having baby Jean to look after changed that or not. We decided not to risk it. Then we went to Harlem Skin Clinic, they had some seriously clean waxing stations and the ladies, and one lady-man, were really awesome at their job. I got one chick named Giselle and while she couldn’t make the process completely painless, she was almost as good as Greta back in Lima. Facials, and waxing of the legs, eyebrows, pits, and full Brazilians for five and we were still out of there in time to meet the dads and the guys for dinner at the Harlem Tavern pretty close to the salon. 

The next day it was back to freaking classes. Though Mami came down to campus and had lunch with me. It was nice. We talked and it was a little weird because she was kind of talking to me like I was another adult. Which turned all kinds of wrong when she asked me if I thought it was a good idea to finish off the basement for a ‘playroom’. 

“Oh God. Please tell me you didn’t read that crappy ass Fifty Shades book.” I groaned. 

“It wasn’t that bad.” She defended. 

I rolled my eyes. “Getting food poisoning from eating a hole-in-the-wall brunch place and not being able to leave the fucking bathroom for two days was better than that book. That broad got laid less than the Hobbit and someone let her write a book not just about boning, but about naughty BDSM boning. She probably hasn’t even tried anything more than vanilla, but she’s gonna write a book about it? And what was up with the gold digging ho that was supposed to be a likable female protagonist? I mean, don’t get me wrong, with the kind of bank that Christian dude had, I’d give him the old virginity too, but shit, she could have at least committed to the lifestyle he wanted to live rather than just reluctantly going along with it. You know if some dude had written that basura, NOW and every other pro-woman organization would be all up his ass.” 

Mami looked a little surprised. “You’ve made some good points there, a few of which…I’ve got to admit, that I’m not sure I’m comfortable you are able to make.” 

“Oh you mean like the fact that Christian Gray was way too damaged to ever be someone’s damn dom…that was just asking sexy times to become abuse. Or how about Little Miss Steele aka Anastasia Save-a-ho… ‘I’m so sure that my love for Christian can make him whole’. No. Intensive counseling can make him whole. Your love can make him try to bury that shit as if it will just miraculously get better just for it to all blow the hell up later on.” I smirked. “I know that and I haven’t even had freshman psych yet.” 

Mom just laughed. “Anyway, I want my own playroom…not a dumb ass knock off of the ‘red room of pain’ or whatever. Pain has never been something I’ve enjoyed causing…not the physical kind anyway.” 

I shrugged and let it go. We changed subjects and had a great lunch. I was tempted to blow off my afternoon classes, but Mom wanted to take Gwen shopping. Mami was going to get Gwen to buy something better than anything she brought with her to wear to Wheezy, Trouty and Puck’s party. Mami was serious about forcing Gwen out of her dowdy hell. She refused to have an in-law who dressed only slightly better than Man-Hands. For a change Kurt and I got home around the same time and we went immediately in ‘get Cedes and her boos ready and out the door on time’ mode. We girls and Kurt took over Commune’s suite. By the time we got there Mercedes was showered and moisturized and walking around in her lingerie, a black satin and red lace contour bra and the matching panties. Her dress, shaper slip and jewelry was laid out on the bed. Her hair was still in curlers. Brittany and I helped her into her shaper slip. That shit was no joke at all. But it turned her curves from ‘va va va voom’ to straight ‘oh my damn’. Kurt took over taking care of her makeup. He kept it light and natural with silver on her lids, and champagne gloss on her lips. As he worked his brushes and creams, he told we all talked through the setup for the day. “Okay. Anika said that all the outfits were on site. I know that Christope is ready to buy copies of the soundtrack to send to everyone he knows in the entire United Kingdom just based on your sound check from this afternoon.” 

“You guys are heading out at eight thirty, we’ll head over after we all have a chance to get dresses, so we should be out the door by nine fifteen, since Artie, Boy Berry and the Parents know to be dressed by the time we finish up with you.” I added as I took down her hair and turned her middle of the back length weave into sideswept bangs and Farrah Fawcett feathered flips. We got her zipped into the dress and just as I’d known she looked fucking awesome. 

Brittany was the only one with the patience to help her put on all the antiqued silver bangles that had to go on both of Mercedes’ arms. “I’m a little sad that we won’t be singing with you though.” Brittany admitted. 

“I’m not. I’m going to be able to enjoy the whole thing. Rub elbows with some big wigs. See what buzz I can hear and what buzz I can direct.” I told my girl with a wicked grin. “By the time I’m done, all the merch will be gone and folks will be beggin’ for a KAMA album too.”  
Mercedes laughed and started to don her earrings for the evening. “Ooh, you got your nails done. They are gorgeous.” Britts cooed drawing my attention over to her ears where she was slipping in the intricate antique silver drop earrings. I finished fastening the necklace into place as Mercedes laughed. 

“Yeah, didn’t eat lunch, but my mani and pedi are on point.” Cedes laughed showing off her simple fire engine red finger and toe nails. She straightened the medallion so that it was perfectly placed to draw the eye to her amazing tits. Her nerves started jumping and she started restating shit we already knew. “What time is it? Deborah said that the limo would be here at eight thirty.” She said looking around for the clock. “Text Sam and Puck and tell them to come on and get dressed.” ‘Retha commanded imperiously when she realized that the car service would be there in forty-five minutes. 

As Kurt left to get dressed himself, I helped Cedes trade her purses to the Michael Kors silver clutch her mother had given her before we left Lima. Sometime I got really jealous about how Mercedes mom would give her shit before it was completely out of style…my mother really only wanted to share if I was willing to dress like her mini-me. Danica Jones shared the wealth without putting caveats on it. The worst part was that I always looked freaking amazing when I let Mami play dress up. Granted there wasn’t really anytime that I didn’t look hot as fire… so that was too much of a leap. Sam and Puck came up took quick ass showers, shaved, brushed their teeth, threw on the clothes Kurt had pulled out for them based on previous conversations and everyone went down to the ground floor. I loved the fact that Mercedes had her six inch high, Michael Kors Milan peep toe, black, glittery evening pumps in her hands. She was wearing a pair of the roll up and stuff in the clutch flats to wear until they got there. 

Deborah had managed to get four extra early admission tickets for the event. Since our parents were already scheduled to be there and we wanted to go with them…I full on wanted to see what Gwen’s makeover ended up looking like… the extra tickets had gone to Bubbie Ruth and Klaine. Kurt and Blaine rode with them and Bubbie and her date were meeting them there. As I got dressed I reminded myself to remind Mercedes and Puck, before they left the next morning, to drop some ‘bows on Finnessa for fucking over Zizes. Puffy Moobs was really stupid. He’d ruined the best thing that he had going for him. So sad. The only thing sadder was that I wasn’t going home for Thanksgiving so that I could kick him in the balls on principal. Thinking about that made my head and heart hurt, so I shook that shit off as Artie, Britts and the Parents headed down to the Beacon Theatre for the SongBird party. We could do a post mortem of the event before they pulled out the next morning…or maybe after they got back. None of us had class Wednesday and Britts parents were planning on riding the train to the house since they were coming in so early…that was a clear sign that we needed to gets our morning fuck on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AN: Many of KAMA’s songs are real songs recorded by artists in the past. Please check out the Yahoo Group for a full listing of the correct singers, songwriters and other necessary information.


	5. You Raise Me Up, Where Its At, & Glory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Many of KAMA’s songs are real songs recorded by artists in the past. Please check out the Yahoo Group for a full listing of the correct singers, songwriters and other necessary information. The song used in this chapter as the KAMA song from the SongBird soundtrack is ‘The Fighter’ by Gym Class Heroes.

You Raise Me Up (Josh Groban)  
Bubbie Ruth PoV

Having Noah and his friends in the same city as me had really turned my life from one of boredom punctuated by moments of great sexual adventure to one of overall adventure punctuated by moments of great sexual adventure. In making the arrangements for the kids to have their post pregnancy scare date, I’d reconnected with a gentleman I’d dated years before when he was working as a model to save money to go to a special pastry school in Paris. Roman was now the lead pastry chef at The Place, and during our discussion I invited him to be my guest at the soundtrack release party. He arrived at my place looking better than ever. At almost thirty, Roman Manaso was even finer than he had been at twenty one. He was just under six foot four with muscles that had muscles. His hair was long, hella long. I was certainly not ending the night without running my hands through that water fall of chocolate locks. He was dressed impeccably in a tailored black suit with matching black shirt and tie. For the decade I had known him, he’d always preferred to wear black. Back in the day he’d often told me that it was because he couldn’t clash with my ever changing rainbow of colors.

“You look amazing Ruth Mayzer. You seem to get younger every time I see you. So how did you get your hands on tickets to what the buzz says is one of the biggest soundtrack release party of the year?” He asked me after giving a kiss that clearly told me that he was looking forward to us having a private after party as much as I was. I told him the back story of my grandson and his honeys and their friends. “Wow, you must be very proud.”

“Roman, if my pride got any bigger I’d have to avoid all heights and stairs.” We shared a chuckle. “So how have you been? Last time I ran into you, you were dating that pretty French girl.”

He rolled his eyes. “Analiese was quite happy to benefit from all that I learned in your bed, but once she met you she became convinced that since you were more mature and far more beautiful you’d steal me away…” He shrugged, “... and I never could abide that kind of insecurity.” Roman shook his head. “Granted, if you wanted a serious relationship I’d be very happy to apply for the job…but I know better than to hang my heart on that star.”

I patted his bare cheek sliding my thumb over the silky hair of his goatee. “Oh darling, first of all I would never let you. You are singularly handsome, tall, intelligent and an amazing cook. Your DNA must be passed on and I am light years beyond my ability to do so. Besides, my heart is waiting for me on the other side.”

“It is too bad that you don’t have another daughter.” He teased. As we made our way to the Theater, we talked and caught up on the past. The more I talked to him, the more I was sure that I needed to invite him to as many family events as I could. Something told me that it would definitely benefit my young friend.

I’ve been in the television industry for almost thirty years, and attended more industry parties than I even wanted to consider, but not a single one of them had prepared me for my first music industry party. First of all, there was a real red carpet and a whole lot more photogs. Second of all, the event was far more fashion forward than the usual television event. I was wearing a vintage black on white polka dot, Oscar de la Renta cocktail dress with an asymmetrical shawl collar, faux wrap draped hemline and a white black belt. I needed more color, so I’d accessorized the dress with my favorite pair of red patent leather Jimmy Choos, its matching clutch and some eye catching red jewelry…but for once I wasn’t the most fabulously dressed woman in the room. The Beacon Theatre had been made even more beautiful, the Baroque décor played up with sensual looking decorations that alluded to the sexuality inherent in R&B music. The concession stands were all offering merchandise for the movie and copies of the soundtrack. There was an entire cadre of young servers walking around with platters of hors d'oeuvres and champagne.

We’d arrived just in time to beat the actual stars and got to see the arrival of the kids; Noah was looking very understated and cool. I was almost shocked to see that he had shed his Mohawk. “He’s finally accepted himself.” I murmured before turning to Roman. “Keep me away from any stairs.” I teased.

“Proud grandmother just got even prouder.” He said with a grin. “His girl is very pretty.”

I laughed. “You can say it. Noah’s ‘Sexy Mama’ is a hot little thing.” I grinned. She very much was; in her flame red dress and sky high heels, she looked every bit the sexy songstress…her cleavage was making me wish for the first time in a very long while that I had met her first. “His boyfriend is just as hot.” I said with a smile. Sam was just as sexy in his black and white too. “I think they decided to let Mercy have the bulk of the attention tonight.”

“Good luck with that. There is something about the three of them together that you can’t take your eyes off of.” Roman smiled. “He has your charisma and sensuality. She has an understated sexuality that is almost palpable and their boyfriend catches every eye that would overlook the other two. If their voices are at all that you say…they are going to go very far. Check them out, the photographers are loving them.”

I smiled proudly as Noah, Cede and Sam waved at us. Blaine joined us, but Kurt went with the trio to get changed for their opening performance. While talking with Blaine, we saw the arrival of Anthony Hamilton, David Banner, Rascal Flatts, Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride and Common. Not long thereafter Jill Scott arrived wearing a darling ‘LBD’ that highlighted her beautiful curves and showed off a cleavage that was definitely awe inspiring. “If I were straight, Mercedes and Jill Scott would so be my type.” Blaine whispered to Roman and my amusement.

We helped ourselves to the amazingly delightful herb roasted scallops wrapped in prosciutto. The next hostess to pass was carrying crab salad canapés. She was followed by a black clad gentleman carrying flutes of champagne and he explained that there was an open bar near the interior ticket booth. Neither Roman nor I said anything when Blaine easily took a glass of champagne as well. As we talked, we made our way to the concession area and each bought several copies of the CD. I was happy to see that it came with a digital version that I would easily be able to add to my MP3 player. I made sure to get a copy for Robin Roberts. She loved music and particularly loved Jill Scott. I knew that she wasn’t currently able to do much shopping, so whenever I saw something she or Amber would like I tried to pick it up for them. Besides we wanted to get the numbers up on that CD if at all possible, to show the head honchos that they were right for putting their faith into our family.

Near the concession stand there were several displays offering more of the delightful hors d'oeuvres. I noted several that I would eventually try and love that evening, including the tamari and maple-roasted almonds, mini Asian crab cakes, lemon-parsley gougeres, potato pancakes with gravlax and Dill, pork, spinach and artichoke filled pot stickers, and large arrangements of shrimp cocktail with both the expected cocktail sauce and Japanese ‘Yum Yum’ sauce.

I also got a copy for Ryan Seacrest and the guys who selected the acts for Good Morning America and the New Year’s Eve show. There was nothing I wouldn’t do to help those three be successful and if giving their music to a few people who might help them move to the next level would help, that was exactly what I was going to do. When I looked askance at Roman, he shrugged. “Ben Ratliff loves my baumkuchen. Next time he orders it, I’ll send this to him.”

“Wow…that’s great.” Blaine smiled.

I just chuckled and leaned close to him. “You do know that I was planning on sleeping with you tonight already, right?”

Roman threw back his head and laughed. “I thought so, it would be rude to fully assume…still want to stay on your good side. Maybe I can get a repeat performance again before eight more years pass.”

It was my turn to laugh, but before I could retort, Blaine was waving over the rest of their gang. Marisol reached us first and I greeted her warmly. Despite the fact that they could each be as abrasive as sandpaper, I really liked both of the Lopez girls. Marisol looked very chic in a white halter cocktail dress with a layered skirt and black detailing in the form of piping around the hem of the three layers of the skirt. The dress and black starburst clutch were both Halston, authentic and very envogue for the season. Her shoes were almond toed ultra-high heels in black with and adorable ankle strap. Rather than dragging Santiago in her wake, she was forcing a barely recognizable Gwen Abrams to keep up with her. Gwen was wearing a very cute, very conservative, Elie Tahari floral print sheath. Her heels were far lower than Marisol’s and while they were D’Orsay evening pumps I could see the mark of Gwen’s frugality in the fact that they weren’t a brand I recognized easily. Not that I only bought the higher end stuff myself, I had simply trained myself to recognize them because it made me one of the best in my field. The shoes were very cute and I really did think that Marisol, who quickly took credit for the makeover, had done a great job.

Santiago and Roger shortly joined us, followed by Artie, Santana and Brittany. I would never admit it out loud, but men’s fashion was very pretty boring. That’s where ‘the man makes the clothes’ saying probably came from, unless the man in the suit is exceptional, a suit is just a suit. Blaine and Artie stood out from the dads because both Santiago and Roger were wearing suits and the boys were wearing slacks and a cute, grey, retro cut jacket in Artie’s case and a red and black plaid blazer in Blaine’s…but Tana and Brittany, they were both done up nicely. It was almost a little weird to see Santana all dressed up and she not be in red. But I knew without asking that she’d done it for Mercedes. Instead she was in a beautiful royal blue, lace mini dress with three quarter length belled sleeves. She had pulled her hair back into a sleek low ponytail that made her bold makeup look even more gorgeous. “The line out there for general admission is ridiculous.” Santana crowed as soon as she was close enough. Then her eyes caught Roman. “I didn’t think it was possible for there to be a man finer than Mr. Martinez…but you may actually be finer than I really believed was humanly possible.” She quickly turned to me. “I want to be like you when I’m old.”

Brittany poked her girlfriend in the side. “You won’t be…because unless something happens to me and Artie, you’re taken until the day you die.” We all shared a small laugh at that as I assessed Brittany’s outfit. My first thought was that despite the fierceness of her dress, she had to have been cold. She was wearing a white, floor length, strapless, notched neckline dress from BCBGMAXAZRIA’s Alyce line. To tone down the white, her blonde hair was down around her shoulders barely curled under at the ends. She was wearing black heels with silver brocade patterns on the front. They were cute, but seemed a little more Gwen’s style than Brittany. However they looked great with the clutch she had chosen a silver and black box clutch that I was almost positive was from Badgley Mischka’s spring line.”

The three of us who had already made our purchases waited while the new arrivals bought their CDs, and other merchandise, including copies and tee shirts for all the other parents in Amicitiae Amore as well as Shelby, Sue and Shannon. While we were waiting I decided to grab some for Neil and Francesca. “Did you guys see Saul and Mills in the line?”

“Speak of the Devil and he shall appear, Mom.” Saul said as he and Mills joined us. “We got in line just in time…it’s wrapped around the building out there.” My son hadn’t bothered with a suit. Instead he was wearing a pair of straight leg jeans, a graphic tee and a black leather jacket.

“I’m just glad we made it inside at all. This theatre only seats twenty eight hundred.” Mills laughed charmingly. Introductions were made as our party was finally complete. The house’s tenants were invited, but they would probably hang out together if they were able to come. Mills looked darling and as fashionable as I had come to expect in a black, art silk, blouson jumpsuit. My newest daughter already knew me well. She lifted her hem and showed me her adorable silver satin, peep toe super high pumps with their rhinestone studded ankle strap. Her cute little clutch matched the ankle strap rather than the main part of the shoe. Her hair was completely straight down her back and around her shoulders and the only jewelry she wore other than her wedding set was a pair of simple diamond drop earrings.

Since the event staff was still walking around with trays and platters, we enjoyed some more of the delicious hors d'oeuvres that were being offered as well as the lovely champagne. We watched those around us and discussed the fashion of the stars that had arrived and Santana and Marisol had fun dissecting the clothing of the ‘lesser mortals’ that were attending as well. Brittany, Artie, Mills and Saul all chatted with others around them as well; charming several of the attendees and networking with those they conversed with. I saw both Mills and Saul passing out business cards and making several new contacts.

At ten everyone was ushered into the theatre proper. Thankfully Anika and Christophe had reserved seating for all of us very near the front. The only people ahead of us were radio and internet contest winners and directly behind us were some of the other artists, Warner Film and Music big wigs. Even with the work I’ve done and the attempts I’ve always made to be good and kind to people who come through the ABC studios, it was still totally surreal when Anthony Hamilton, who hadn’t been in one of my chairs in over a year leaned forward and tapped my shoulder. “Ms. Ruth, I thought that was you. How are you doin’?”

“I’m doing great tonight, Mr. Hamilton.” I told him with a huge smile. “I love that jacket.” I told him honestly. The charcoal gray distressed looking suede blazer was adorable.

“So are you here for work?” he asked with a toothy grin.

I shook my head. “Nope. The new group, KAMA, is actually comprised of my daughter’s eldest and his loves. We’re here to support them. Mercedes is the girl everyone is talking about who came from nowhere to play Ms. Scott’s daughter in the movie.”

“You’ve gotta be about fit to burst with pride.” He laughed. I agreed but we were silenced by the arrival of the MC on the stage.

The MC reminded us of the reason we were there and that if we enjoyed the music we should avail ourselves of the concession stand and get the CD. Then he introduced KAMA by telling everyone that they had premiered at the Warner Halloween party and were really amazingly talented. Per the vibe in the room and the MC’s admonition the theatre erupted in applause. The massive red curtains opened and revealed the kids standing in front of a huge band. The band was decked out in all black and seemed to have every instrument known to man. Sam and Noah were both in jeans and pullovers, white for Sam and a heather gray for Noah. Both young men had their forearms bared and their stances just a little aggressive. Mede stood between them, in a simple bright blue jumpsuit that was high necked and wide legged. She seemed taller and I wondered with a smile how high her heels actually were. The music swelled as Mercedes strong voice rang out in about the middle of her vocal range. “Give em hell, turn their heads. Gonna live life 'til we're dead. Give me scars, give me pain. Then they'll say to me, say to me, say to me. There goes the fighter, there goes the fighter. Here comes the fighter…That's what they'll say to me, say to me, say to me, this one's a fighter.”

I looked around and saw the audience around us fall in love with Mercedes voice. Then Noah and Sam came in sort of rap/singing. “Just waking up in the morning and to be well, quite honest with ya, I ain't really sleep well. Ya ever feel like your train of thought's been derailed? That's when you press on - Lee nails. Half the population's just waitin to see me fail. Yeah right, you're better off trying to freeze hell. Some of us do it for the females…and others do it for the retail. But I do it for the kids, life threw the towel in on. Every time you fall it's only making your chin strong. And I'll be in your corner like Mick, baby, 'til the end, or when you hear a song from that big lady.”

The three of them came together to sing the bridge as the orchestra swelled behind them. “Until the referee rings the bell, until both your eyes start to swell, until the crowd goes home…What we gonna do ya'll?”

Mercedes voice flowed over us as she played with the chorus again. The song was a little uptempo and the kids were dancing their asses off, moving all around the entire stage as they sang. Noah came in strong with the next verse. “And if I can last thirty rounds…There's no reason you should ever have your head down. Six foot one, two hundred and twenty pounds hailing from rock bottom, loserville, nothing town.” There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that that line was hella personal to Noah. It came through in every note and made the lyrics come alive.

Sam’s voice took over next, his accent thick even in song. “Text book version of a kid going nowhere fast and now I'm yelling, "Kiss my ass". It's gonna take a couple right hooks, a few left jabs for you to recognize you really ain't got it bad.” People were up and dancing and singing along during the bridge and the chorus. He came back in with a sung chant that the audience really got into. “Everybody put yo hands up. What we gonna do (hey!) y'all?” was chanted a whole bunch of times and every time the audience got louder.

MeDe’s voice turned hard almost harsh it was so strong and so aggressive. “If you fall pick yourself up off the floor (get up) and when your bones can't take no more (c'mon). Just remember what you're here for, cuz I know Imma damn sure…” and in an instant her voice was back to being melodic and beautiful for the final chorus. They finished the song with a bridge all together. The crowd was insane with love for them. Mercedes seemed to disappear and Sam and Noah were handed their guitars. They did ‘Rescue Me’ together and then said goodnight only for Mercedes to come back out alone. As they passed each other on the stage, Noah and Sam both kissed her gently which seemed to further excite the audience.

Her solo was straight up R&B with a little bit of a slight gospel feel. She moved the audience to pure tears. ‘The Fighter’, the KAMA song, was strong and almost aggressive; ‘The Climb’, Mercedes’ solo was deeper, richer…it was truly inspirational. The audience loved it completely. Every note was perfect. The runs before the final bridge were awe inspiring. The crowd, most of whom wouldn’t have been able to match a face with her name before that night, was eating out of the palm of her hand. I didn’t even notice Martina McBride make her way out of the seats. I didn’t notice the Warner people behind us chattering away; dollar signs filling their eyes. I didn’t even notice Santana a few seats away hyping Mercedes and KAMA up to the radio winners for whom Jill Scott and Rascal Flatts had been the real draws. I was that deeply ensnared by her voice. When the last note died away, I was the first one on my feet. I clapped and cheered until my hands hurt.

Martina McBride and Jill Scott took the stage and did a wonderful rendition of ‘Teenage Daughters’ which was in the movie in its original country version and then on the soundtrack as a duet. Then the two of them were joined by Mercedes and their voices blended amazingly on ‘In My Daughter’s Eyes’. Rascal Flatts was up next. They did a very moving version of ‘My Wish’, which the crowd loved. Then Noah and Sam, both of them with their guitars, joined them onstage and together they sang ‘Love You Out Loud’, which I noticed wasn’t on the soundtrack, but I for one was certainly not complaining.

Over the course of the evening we heard all thirteen songs from the soundtrack and a few other smaller covers that were used in the movie but didn’t make the soundtrack. The last song was a simple duet between Mercedes and Jill Scott. Both of the voluptuous divas were wearing floor length formal gowns, Mercedes’ a navy blue, sequin festooned, one shoulder number and Jill’s red, shawl collar, sex bomb. ‘Who You Are’ was a very touching song that showcased the vocals of both of the songstresses. They were both such strong vocalist that the orchestra was playing full bore and their voices were still above the music not hidden therein. When the last person finished clapping, the two Divas were joined on stage, for an encore, by Martina McBride who had changed into a lovely Grecian looking ivory one shoulder gown. The trio went into a rousing, roof raising, raucous delivery of ‘Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves’. Of course, I knew every word.

When the concert was over we all headed back into the lobby, where the bar and buffet were once again open. Roman went and got us drinks, returning with a pomegranate champagne cocktail and a draft beer. “Ruth, you have every reason to be proud. Those three are going far. I heard someone say that the concession stand went from twelve boxes before the concert to being down to just two and the concert has only been over for ten minutes. People were coming out and buying them then going back in…and supposedly that started after the very first song.”

Roger and Santiago returned from getting their wives drinks. The younger crew had disappeared on us, though I was fairly sure that Santana was over by the shrimp cocktail making the caterer worry that they were going to run out. “The chatter on the floor is hugely in favor of KAMA. They are asking when they are going to put out an album. The only person I heard that didn’t seem to be in love with them was a dark haired girl that looked vaguely familiar and her date.” Santiago gestured towards the girl he was speaking about.

“Don’t know who she is, but she must have money. Those ombred ends, those shoes are Pella Moda, though I am surprised to see somebody that young wearing kitten heels…all that screams money, plus, that dude is a gigolo. The Matre D’ at ‘The Place’ keeps a registry of all the jigs and escorts we spot. They have a tendency to dine and dash if their date doesn’t go well.” Roman explained with a small grin. “Oh and that tacky dress is hella ugly and kind of juvenile but high end.”

Wait…tacky, juvenile ugly dress…dark hair… old lady shoes. Why does that all sound so familiar. “Oh shit, where is Santana?” I started searching the crowd. I grabbed out my phone and texted the fiery Latin diva. “Please Satan…if you don’t cause a scene I will loan you my brand new leather peplum minidress. Haven’t even worn it yet.”

She turned and came over to us. “Damn…you spotted her too.” Santana smirked. “Gotta give her credit, that bitch has the world’s best luck. You guys spotted her first.”

Roman smirked. “Sounds like there is no love lost.”

Marisol cursed stridently in Spanish before answering the inherent question in that statement. “That is Rachel Berry, she used to be a friend…or at least call herself one…of Mercedes. However, time has shown her to be a viper…a pit viper. She has tried several times to hamper Mercedes’ success.”

“Yes well, what the Lord has for you, no one can take away.” MeDe said as she and the boys joined us. “Besides, I’ve heard five different women laughing at her behind her back. I’m not sure what the deal is with her date, but they are finding him very amusing.”

Noah and Sam smiled cheekily, no longer able to wait to find out, “So, what are you hearing? What’s the buzz?”

“Well first…let me introduce you to my friend Roman.” I chided gently.

“You are one built dude. You look like you could be in the WWE.” Sam said looking up at Roman’s face. “Damn…are you a bodyguard or something. I mean, you are big.”

Roman gave him a smirk. “Kid, you’re not that small yourself.” He pointed out. “But I’m actually a patisserie. Which is a really fancy way to say that I’m a very exclusive dessert chef. I believe that you three enjoyed my bread pudding and crème brulee the other night.”

“Oh wow, you were Bubbie’s connection at ‘The Place’.” Noah said with a smirk of his own. “So you’re boning my grandmother…you are certainly her type. You’d better do her right or else. I’m not ashamed to say I’m not gonna try and fight you… but I will shoot your big ass. Hit you once in each kneecap and then a nice respectful double tap to the head.”

“Thank you for that. It’s just plain disrespectful not to go for the double head shot. It underestimates my strength and ability to fight through pain.” Roman shot back much to my confusion. “Sorry Ruth, don’t worry…it’s a CoD/ Walking Dead thing.”

I rolled my eyes. “My date and my grandson play the same video games…if I were a different person that might actually bother me.”

Mercedes looked around quickly and I noticed that Deborah was gesturing at her watch. “Sorry, we’ve gotta hurry...Deborah wants us to walk the room and smooze.”

“Well, just give us enough time for a toast.” Santiago said with a grin. He made an effortless gesture and one of the hosts with a tray of champagne appeared almost as if by magic. The kids all grabbed a glass, once everyone had a drink in their hand he spoke, “To Commune…KAMA. In the last year you have done so much to change the world around you for the benefit not only of yourselves but for the benefit of all those you hold dear. I’ve gotta say it has been magnificent to see, to watch and to be a peripheral part of…Thank you for bring my Angelita and her loves on this wild, wonderful journey with you. You three are going to be so very successful. Here is our hope that the very best day of your past be worse than the very worst day of your future…Salud.”

Marisol, Santana and Artie all seconded that Spanish ‘Cheers’. “Sei gesund.” Saul, myself and the Abrams all said with a big grin. Blaine smirked as both he and Roman said “Mabuhay”. Mills and Brittany both simply said cheers. Mercedes, Sam and even my incorrigible Noah all blushed hotly. None of them were fully comfortable with direct, one on one praise like that. We all took a sip of the marvelous champagne, or of our cocktails.

The rest of the evening passed in an absolute blur of faces and names, questions and comments. Noah, MeDe and Sam made twenty eight hundred fans that night and I was happier for them then I could put into words. Roman saw Deborah and I back to my apartment at one thirty and he was kind enough keep us entertained until we had to say good bye seven hours later. Roman kept saying that he was a very lucky man. I personally thought that I was the lucky one. Deborah was a fun and adventurous lover. Roman was hung like horse. When I had to leave to meet the rest of the family traveling to Lima for Thanksgiving, both Deb and I were walking rather gingerly and Roman was strutting like a peacock. Then again, the smile on my face was telling a story all its own.

Where Its At (Beck)  
Saul PoV

Mills and I had a blast at the soundtrack release party. The crowd was really excited as they talked about the ‘new group’ and it was easy to tell that they wanted more. We actually headed out long before Mom and the young set. I bit back a groan when I heard Mom ask her date if he minded waiting for her friend Deborah. I just knew that my mother was about to make that man’s dream come true…squickish as the thought might be for me. Granted, I didn’t allow that to stop me from spending several hours showing Mills just how hot she had looked wearing that sexy little jumpsuit and how much I appreciated her leaving off the bra, even though she didn’t have to. Thankfully Noah and his loves hadn’t sang any of their love songs. Those three had managed to do something I’d never heard before. They had created Rock/R&B fusion babymaking music. If they had played one of those songs, that concert would have turned into a straight up orgy.

We were back up and out the door with our luggage for the weekend by eight thirty. Since my place was sort of on the way from both Harlem and Chelsea to JFK, we met up in my lobby and I can honestly say we were all looking like we probably should have had one less round of sex and one more hour of sleep. But we all looked happy as hell. There comes a point where even when you are happy and satisfied with why you’ve not gotten enough sleep, you can still be entirely too tired to eat. Even Kurt and Blaine were at that extreme level of tired, so we skipped breakfast all together. We got to the airport on time and boarded after leaning against each other all fighting valiantly to stay awake. Our arrival at Dayton was only ten minute late. Since no one was in any condition to make the hour drive up to Lima, I hired a shuttle to make the trip. It would be easy to rent a car in Lima once we were rested.

It was as we were on the way from Dayton to Lima that we were all startled by something coming from the speakers. “Holy shit.” Is that? “Sir can you turn up the radio.” I called out…sure enough.

“I stare at my reflection in the mirror: "Why am I doing this to myself?" Losing my mind on a tiny error; I nearly left the real me on the shelf. No, no, no, no, no...” Mercedes dulcet tones came flowing out of the radio joined by Jill’s on the chorus.

“Oh my God.” Mercedes gasped. “I’m on the radio…I’m on the radio.” We all turned around to look at the three of them in the backseat, our faces beaming with happiness.

“Holy Shit.” Noah basically screamed. “That is fucking awesome, Babygirl.” Then he and Sam laid kisses on her that probably should have made me uncomfortable to see. But I was so happy for them that I couldn’t feel anything but joy.

When the song ended the radio host’s voice filled the car. “That was ‘Who You Are’ by Jill Scott and new comer and Ohio native Mercedes Jones. It’s from the SongBird soundtrack available today in stores and on iTunes. SongBird hits theaters on December twentieth. Dayton, we should pack the theaters. How often do we get to see a hometown girl on the big screen?”

“She’s actually from Lima…but we’ll take it.” Kurt laughed merrily. “We need to blow social media up. Get the date trending everywhere we can. If we can get theaters packed for opening weekend, you know that KAMA’s first album will blow up.”

When we got to Bent and Dani’s the driver congratulated Mercedes warmly and I tipped him heavily. As soon as we walked in the house Noah, Cede and Sam were telling everyone including Ms. Mae and the babies about hearing her on the radio. Mills and I bothered Gab’s belly and played with Amaea and Amara before we borrowed Benton’s Jag and went to check in to our hotel. We needed a nap in the worst way. “I cannot believe that we heard somebody we know on the radio. It just made it all really real, ya know?” Mills asked as she changed into a sexy little negligee.

“I do know what you mean. What I don’t know is why you bother with nightgowns? You know I’m gonna slip it off of you as soon as I get in touching distance.”

Mills smirked at me. “Maybe that’s exactly why I bother.” She taunted as she came closer. So our nap had to wait an hour. It was totally worth it. We slept for two hours and then showered and headed back to the house. On the way Benton texted me and asked if we could stop and get the traditional Chinese takeaway. By the time we got there, Devon and Tonya and Kevon and Patrice had arrived.

“Okay, so this summer is going to be hella packed.” Becah said once we were all seated around the table with our food. “Kevon and Patrice are getting married in June. George and I are getting married in July…”

“Saul and I are having a ceremony on August ninth.” Mills injected while Becks was looking at her calendar.

Every woman related to me, by blood and by choice, all screamed and soon food was forgotten as they dragged Mills kicking and screaming into a conversation of dresses and flowers and colors and everything. The guys looked up from their plates and congratulated me then promptly went right back to consuming vast amounts of Chinese food. The night was filled with light and laughter, conversation and well wishes. Mom and the Jones sons and their wives headed to the hotel to check in and Mills and I returned to our room. Morning came early and we headed back and helped with dinner. Then we ate dinner, and we fell into food comas. Once enough people came to, we played a boatload of games. I spanked the adult men at Monopoly while Dani took the title for the adult females. She and I along with Kevon and Becah, who came in second in each of their respective games, played to find out who took the championship. Ultimately it came down to myself and my darling blood sister but in the end the title was mine.

Over the nine months Mills and I had been married; I’d found, a little to my surprise, that there was nothing I loved more than laying in the still and quiet of afterglow just chatting with my wife. We had spent some time talking about important things, like the flooring we’d picked for the first floor or which cabinets we wanted for our new kitchen, and then we got really silly. “So, tell me one thing you know for sure that I don’t know about you and you kind of worry about my reaction when I find out?” I asked my sated and relaxed wife, smiling to myself as I thought about the progress we’d looked at Monday evening on the house we were building. The basement had been changed twice but it was now completed as was the shell of the three above ground floors and the roof.

I felt her smile against my chest. “If I’m worried about your reaction when you find out…why would I voluntarily tell you what it is?”

I shrugged. “Because you’re my wife for the next fifty or sixty years…life last and nothing happen…so I’m gonna find out eventually. Might as well get it on out of the way now.”

“This is one of those weird things you, Sander and Benton do during your Saturday morning skype sessions…isn’t it?” she arched her head to look at me. I admitted it was and that this one had come from the slightly disturbed mind of my brother from a southern mother. “What is Sander’s one thing?”

I looked around checking without thought to make sure that we were alone before I told her, despite knowing for a fact that we were. “Sander is an eyelash plucker. When he gets really bored he will pull out his loose eyelashes.”

Mills laughed. “That’s not that bad. I thought you were gonna say that he sometimes wore Gabby’s panties or something wild and crazy. So what is Benton’s?”

Benton’s wasn’t one I was comfortably thinking about. I mean Danica was my sister in my heart just as much as Rebecah or Gabrielle…thinking of her in a sexual way, as I pretty much had to whenever I had to consider Benton’s bent little confession. So instead I threw her mine. “I have to lotion my elbows three times a day. I’ve done it since college.” I finally said with a wry grin.

“I knew you had lotion in your apartment the first time I came over. I just assumed it was left behind by one of your black family members…I didn’t realize that it was yours. My white man uses Jergens. That’s hilarious.” Mills teased. “I guess I can tell you. If I don’t get a pedicure every two weeks, my feet get so bad they can shred sheets.”

“Is it weird that our hidden secrets are so similar…and I kind like it.” I kissed her and soon we had a nice, unexpected romp, before we finally fell asleep.

We didn’t make it back to the hotel until fairly late and didn’t make it to sleep until even later, but Mills had me back up early. She was determined to catch the sales, since she had so many people to buy for. We hit the malls found a few things for a couple of people. In Macy’s we ran into Danica and Mercedes. If I had known how much trouble the encounter would end up developing into, I’d have steered clear of my sister and niece. “So where are the two of you going to register for your wedding gifts?” Danica asked innocently.

“We can’t do that... by the time we have our ceremony, we’ll have been married for over a year.” I said, clearly thankful for the fact that we’d not need to jump through that hoop.

Mercedes and Dani exchanged a long look before bursting into loud guffaws of laughter. “Saul, you do know that no one holds to that rule anymore, don’t you? People register for gifts for vow renewals all the time. Plus on top of the ceremony, you two will be furnishing a house. Might as well get stuff for that while you’re at it.”

Then it was my wife and my turn to exchange long looks. “Wait, you know about that? How do you know about that? We were waiting until like Passover to tell the family about that.” Mills asked quickly.

Mercedes laughed. “You told Francesca…she let it slip to Neil…who let it slip to Kurt…who let it slip to Puck who told me. I think I told Mom…no, I told Becah…she told mom…”

“She also told Bubbie, who told Moma Mae and she told Benton before I even got the chance.” Dani pouted.

I rolled my eyes. “You know this isn’t normal. There are families out there were grandmothers from separate sides only see each other at huge family events like christenings and such…right? They don’t have daily chats for no reason other than to see how the other is doing. Friends and roommates don’t talk to their friend’s various family members and act as their style gurus.”

Mills gave me a cross eyed look. “It might not be normal, but I kind of like the fact that Ms. Mae calls when I’ve been on her mind. I’ve missed having a family. So yeah, maybe ours isn’t like most people’s…but that’s because it’s better.”

Of course, I then did what men have been doing since time began, not satisfied with having my foot in my mouth, I decided to see what my knee cap tasted like. “Yeah it may well be better, but it is a hell of a lot nosier too.” I said in what I swore was a joking manner. Apparently when I’d only had about three hours of sleep, joking and ‘mean and surly’ were indistinguishable from one another. I got three very fierce, very scary, very ‘I’m not sure white women can even hope to elicit that level of fear with just a look’ frightening looks. Then I found me alone as the three of them turned and walked away as one, discussing the pros and cons of Mills and me creating a wedding registry.

I stood there for a long moment trying to figure out what the hell had happened. Thankfully all Limans are nosy as hell and one of the two older men who had been listening as they sat on a nearby bench waiting on their wives must have read the confusion on my face. “Son, you done stuck your foot in your mouth clear up to the hip.”

I nodded. “I thought it was to the knee, myself. Only problem is that I’m not sure what I did wrong?”

The old man, who actually reminded me a lot of the guy who had played Matlock, laughed. “Son, you basically called your whole family a bunch of nosy nellies. Now the thing about nosy people is that when you call us nosy, we get real offended. Now it seems like to me, just from what I was able to gather, that your little lady has been really missing having family to call her own. Then you went and insulted them…the fact that they are actually your family too ain’t gonna excuse that in her eyes.”

“Yeah, plus you went and said that she shouldn’t do her wedding up just as fancy as every other woman she’s probably ever known.” Matlock’s companion, who looked creepily like Wilfred Brimley, chided me. “That was bound to get you in trouble man. Especially since I’m guessing that you took her to the courthouse or something rushed the first go round.”

“I may have kind of tricked her into a Vegas wedding.” I heard myself admit.

The old men exchanged looks and started to laugh. “Man, you done gone and got that foot so far down your gullet you’re gonna be shitting shoe leather ‘til you’re our age. Every little girl dreams of her wedding day. They even dream about all the other crap associated with weddings.”

“Even those Lesbians and gays dream of their weddings.” Wilfred laughed. “That’s why they wanna get married so bad. They want weddings just like straight girls.”

“I say let them do it. Enough of them get married they’ll figure out what straight folk figured out while back…all marriage does is give ya a piece of paper that says you love each other without hand therefore never have to have sex with each other ever again.” Matlock chortled.

“Sorry, Jake, but that must be what your marriage did. Mine got my wife to finally have sex with me and once that cork was popped...Hell, I still get it at least twice a week. It was more than that before Edna broke her hip last year.” Wilfred laughed.

“Oh shut up, Ben. Not every man lucks up on a virgin who turns into one of those deviants when she goes through the change.”

“Wasn’t the change…” Wilfred damn near giggled. “Fifty-five years and until the hip, every night like clockwork ‘ceptin’ when she had the boys.”

“Fine Ben, but we ain’t here for you to crow about your sex life, we’re here to help this young’un get his woman back ta speakin’ ta him.” Matlock-Jake grumbled. “Alright, your wife just wants to know that all things considered you’re just as hepped up for getting hitched all over again as she is. Probably since you are a man…you’re just not. Learn to fake it until ya can make it. If nothing else, think about how happy its gonna make her. She is the most important thing. Now, look a here, what you’re gonna do is get out your ‘dumb’ phone and send your woman a message to meet you on the first floor of Macys. By the time she gets there you’d better have fixed up the registry wha-cha-ma-callit, and be holding two of them nifty little gun thingies.”

I shook my head, “We aren’t from here.”

“Boy, I can tell that every time you open your mouth. You’re from up in the Big Apple, ain’t ya…that’s why I said Macy’s…I know they got one of them there. Just like I know my grandson said all that stuff was linked up on the internet. So it don’t matter where you start it. Don’t matter where you buy the stuff…all that matters is where you want to have it delivered to and what the wedding date is. You know those two things, right?” I could only nod. “Then take your lanky patootie and do as I said. You don’t even have to do it all here. You can start it and finish it up when you get back to New York. Now get on with you. Muriel and his Edna are coming this way and they will have you here until the end of time if they corner you.” I looked up and saw two older women headed towards us. Neither of them looked like Aunt B…though one of them did look a lot like Maureen Stapleton. Something in me told me to trust the men…after all they looked like they had a century of marital knowledge between the two of them, I stood and shook their hands in thanks before making my escape.

I followed Matlock’s advice and some that I’d gotten from listening to men as they grumbled and groused as they had been forced into ‘registering’ with their brides. I paid attention and I had actual opinions. By the time we left Macy’s we’d barely chosen anything, but I was back in Mills good graces. Gaining my sister’s and niece’s forgiveness was easier…gift cards, chocolates and a cashmere sweater for Danica and a Dooney and Burke bag for Mercedes and all was forgiven. Granted they had already told Mrs. Mae and Mom on me, but those two were perfectly willing to admit to their nosiness. By the time we returned to the City that Sunday, my life was back in order and my foot had been removed from my oral cavity…if I ever ran into those two old men again, I was definitely going to have to show my gratitude.

Glory (Jay-Z)  
Azimio PoV

I was damn glad to be home for Thanksgiving. Having to deal with school and football and Robyn every day was fucking exhausting. I halfway wanted to drop football, but I knew that if I did that, I’d need to get a job to make up the difference that would be left over in my tuition. A job would probably take even more time away from the time I got to spend with my Little Bird. That shit wasn’t about to happen, not if I could help it. I may not have been planning to have a baby when I was eighteen years old. I may not have even actually liked her momma, beyond the obvious ‘she was hot’ kind of way, but that little girl was my whole world. I had planned on going to college because that was what you did….but I knew that I would finish and I would work hard so that I could provide her with the same kind of future that I’d taken for granted. Hell I had been hella lucky so far; all my away games had synced up with Alizay’s weekends with Robyn. But even more than that my cousin Rae had turned out to be a true Godsend.

Nanette Regina Adams was my dad’s older brother’s oldest daughter. She had degrees in in both Journalism and Computer Programing. She had a job with Apple writing the instructions that come with their tech shit. She made damn good money too. I was more than a little surprised that she wanted or needed help with the apartment stuff, but since she only worked like thirty five hours a week maybe she really did. Rae was cool people, but she was pretty reclusive and kind of boring. She read, like a lot. She had brought her furniture, so my parents and I only had to buy the stuff for Robyn’s and my rooms. The living room was filled with bookshelves, Rae owned, like a billion books and not one TV.

The apartment was one of those townhouse-like ones with two bedrooms, a bathroom, living room, kitchen, dining room and sunroom on the first floor and a master suite on the top floor. Rae had the master suite, since she was paying the bulk of the rent and the bills I wasn’t about to argue. She had moved in almost a month before I did, but she still had my ass humping boxes of books up to the other boatload of bookshelves she had taking up most of the big ass bedroom she occupied. But considering that not only did she do her job and took care of Robyn when I can’t, she also took Robyn back to Lima for Alizay’s supervised visits when we need her to. Plus, as long as I chip in for groceries and clean my bathroom, she does all the shopping, most of the cleaning and her and Little Bird’s laundry. If we weren’t family, I’d have had to marry her.

Mom and Dad and I had gotten Robyn a second set of furniture to stay in the apartment. Since she was going to be going home every other weekend, we’d left her nursery at home all set up. Her furniture at home had come from Babies R’Us, the set in the apartment had been brought from the Wilberforce Walmart. My furniture at home had come from Ethan Allen…but for my college room, we’d gone to Goodwill and bought me a desk and chair, dresser, full bed; headboard, footboard and rails; a couple of lamps and a small book shelf; then we’d hit Mattress Firm and got a mattress set for my bed. All total even with the mattresses, we spent twice as much on the baby’s furniture than we did on mine, and we hadn’t spent nearly as much on her room in the apartment as we had on her real room. Rae had a nice comfy glider chair and a small white bookshelf already in Robyn’s room when we arrived and the shelves were filled with books and smart baby toys, gifts from family members who hadn’t been able to send stuff when she was born. Kind of glad that they had to wait, that saved us a grip.

The living room had a big ass dark tan sectional with burgundy, gold and cream colored throw pillows and a couple of long, soft throw blankets over the back. The sunroom acted as Rae’s office. She had a big L shaped desk with a three screen setup for her big ass iMac. The other smaller side she had given to me for my ‘gaming area’ since the room had the best Wi-Fi and all the connections it made the most sense for me to have my TV, Xbox and my awesome X-Rocker gamer chair there. Not that I got to play it all that often. My mornings started early because Little Bird was not a ‘sleep in’ kind of girl. I fed her and got her dressed for the first time for the day and then she chilled in her swing on the dining room table while I fixed myself a nice healthy breakfast. Then it was into the jogging stroller Coach Bieste had gotten for Robyn for a good little run. After the run, we showered and it was into a new onesie and diaper for her and dressed for class for me. By then Rae was usually up and at her computer, so Robyn went into her swing over with Rae, who always piped in Mozart and Chopin in the morning, Aretha and Motown’s greatest in the afternoon. Rae was determined that Little Bird was going to grow up already totally keyed in to musical appreciation. Granted with Puck, Sam and Mercedes as her godparents she couldn’t really avoid it.

I was in classes from ten until three, then I went home and had some bonding time with Rae while I did my assignments or studied, then I literally ran back to campus for football practice. Practice was over at seven, then I ran back to the apartment. I hated fucking running, but Coach was really into conditioning so I had to step up my game. I gave Little Bird her bath with the Johnson & Johnson’s lavender scented baby wash. A nice warm bottle and she was out like a light. Once she was out, then I could finish up my school shit. I may or may not have managed to get in some time vegging out on my bed with the old fashion nineteen inch TV on my dresser. Usually that vegging out turned into knocking out and then it started all over again the next day.

It was fine, and I was doing what I needed to do, but I was glad as hell to get home and see my peoples. Finn and Lauren were the first ones I saw. The whole crew knew that they weren’t together anymore, and a fool could see that Finn wanted her back, but Lauren, she played her shit tight to her vest. There was no reading her at all. They brought Finn’s roommate back with them since old dude had nowhere to go…he was far away and had a fucked up family situation. Vince seemed like cool people. He could play CoD like a boss. Dave got home the next day and fell ass over teakettle with one look. That was some funny shit, watching Dave moon over Vince. Thankfully living with Kurt had taught Finn some shit cause Finn pulled Dave to the side and talked to him so the crush did a quick death when Karofsky realized that it wasn’t gonna be returned. Wednesday evening, I had Little Bird with me when I went over there, she slept through all the trash talk and loud video game sounds. She slept right up to the point when Commune showed up with Beth. Then Beth wanted to play with her. So I helped set up a blanket that Robyn could lay down on allowing them to play. Mercedes walked over to Finn, gave him a hug and then slapped the ever living shit out of him.

“Ooohhh.” We all groaned Finn’s cheek was red as hell and he had a couple of tears making tracks down his cheeks. Yet it was clear looking at Puck that Finn had lucked out...that our formerly mohawked friend had pulled the long straw or lost at ‘rock paper scissors’ or whatever method they used to see who would be telling Finnessa all about himself.

“Just be happy that Santana is staying in Harlem.” She said kindly.

Sam nodded solemnly and interjected. “Be grateful Tina and Mike couldn’t come home either. Mike said that Tina was hugely pissed. Like ‘you really don’t want to know what she is planning’ pissed. A couple of the things she wants to do to you on Lauren’s behalf would make you lose sleep…the rest would make you want to sleep in a cup until your junk is too old to be of any use to anybody.”

Mercedes rolled her eyes at her blond boyfriend before turning back to Finn. “Look, if Lauren can be your friend even after the totally bone headed move you made, then Santana, Tina and I will continue being your friend too. But you need to get your head out your ass. You’ve gotten fucked over by cheerleaders and aggressive Type A personalities before, now you’ve gotten fucked over all over again…hurting Lauren in the process. I can forgive you for being stupid, but I’m having some trouble forgiving you for hurting my girl.”

Finn sighed. “I know. I don’t deserve forgiveness…well, I mean, what I did was really bad and hard to forgive. Dr. Baker said that I wasn’t allowed to say that ‘I don’t deserve’ good things because I shouldn’t feel like I’m not worthy of good stuff happening to me.”

“Did this Dr. Baker also tell your ass that you don’t need to drink? That shit kills brain cells and you don’t have that many to spare.” Puck shot at his boy. Mercedes cut him a side eyed look. “What? You said that I couldn’t hit, cut, smack, punch or wedgie him…you didn’t say I couldn’t verbally express my anger and pissed offed ness at his fucked up choices.”

Mercedes reached up and Gibbs smacked Puckerman. “Drop the f-bomb in front of those babies again and see what I do to you.” she said fiercely.

Puck must have been a C Student by choice because he was smart enough to look scared as hell and moved behind Evans. Jones turned back to Finn who was looking over at Hummel like ‘Kurt help me’. His brother just looked back like ‘Sorry Bro, you brought this onto yourself’. Finally Hudson found some testicular fortitude. “I am sorry. I really am. I love Lauren. I didn’t want to hurt her, like ever but I did. And I don’t even know how I got so drunk. I was just having a few beers with some of the seniors. They were giving me tips on conditioning. I need to get up five more reps of the NFL conditioning test for the coaches to move me up to the second string. I know that I need to do it gradually so I don’t hurt myself and get sustained change…Lauren taught me that over the summer. Then somebody brought out some little plastic things of Jello and it was blue raspberry…which is my favorite. I had a couple of those and then boom waking up with random cheer chick.”

I laughed. “Dude, Hudson, those were Jello shots, they could have anything in them…vodka, rum, everclear, any clear liquor works.”

Then Vince chimed in. “Man, you didn’t have ‘a couple’ of them, either; you had like ten or twelve of them.”

“Damn, no wonder you passed out and can’t remember shit. Granted, you probably didn’t actually cheat. No way your dick worked with that much shit in your system.” Puck laughed. “You know that you’re a cheap drunk. You must have been totally toasted.”

Fabray popped in then and she announced the presence of her and her boyfriend Gibbs by asking “Who is a cheap drunk…Other than me I mean? Oh Finn. Remember that time at Santana’s when she slipped him a half shot of rum in his coke and he climbed onto her coffee table and tried to show everyone that he could do a real hula dance?”

“Oh yeah,” I remembered. “He must of forgot that he can’t do a regular dance, let alone a hula. Wasn’t that the same party Lopez and Pierce….” I stopped laughing with a quickness when I realized how much trouble that story could have gotten Puckerman into. I changed the subject with a quickness. “Hey…we have four non-related black people in the same room and it isn’t school or a church. This might be a Lima, Ohio record.”

“I don’t know about non-related.” Sam said quietly. “Man Vince, Finn and Lauren warned us, but I still keep wanting to call you Kevon.”

“Wait, I thought it was some cat named Devon, I looked like?” Vince said confused.

Mercedes shook her head. “No. You look like my brother Kevon. Finn gets them backwards all the time.”

“Well in Finn’s defense, they aren’t even a full year apart in age and they were together every time he’s seen them.” Fabray pointed out.

“Can I just say, it’s weird to see Fabray without Lopez and Pierce…right?” I asked the room at large.

Lauren laughed. “It is.” She agreed. Then she turned to Vince. “For the two or three years of high school, the ‘Unholy Trinity’ was inseparable. I don’t think Que and Santana even liked each other at first. But they were everywhere together.”

“No we liked each other from jump…at least until I got Captain of the Cheerios when she wanted it. Then it became a Frienemies kind of thing. But after junior prom we got tight again.” Fabray explained to the rest of the room.

“Everyone got tight again after Junior Prom.” Zizes laughed. “You all even sucked me in.”

“I just want to point out that the whitest girl in all of Lima just used the terms ‘from jump’ and ‘tight’ correctly in a sentence. James has been good for you Quinn.” Sam teased.

“You are so lucky you’re holding my daughter, Sam.” Quinn threatened before crossing to take Beth from his arms and hit him in revenge.

We all laughed and then spent the next hour or so catching up and playing pass the babies. We all congratulated Jones, Evans and Puck on the soundtrack and we had all paid the price for it rather than downloading a share file like how both Lauren and I admitted we usually got our music. As Beth and Little Bird determined that it was time for us to go home, Vince looked around at us, “Do you all think you’re all going to be friends forever…like for real?”

“Oh, those three ain’t got no choice. They’ll be seeing me for the rest of our lives, cause they are my Little Bird’s godparents.”

Quinn smiled. “Puck is Beth’s father, we’ll always be connected. Cedes is my sister in all but blood.” She told him.

Finn and Kurt mentioned that they were brothers, and Lauren noted that she was Jones’ manager from way back. “And you have met C Cubed or Artie and Brittany yet, but those three will never, ever, ever let us all lose contact. Tina and Britts are invested in our little family. And Artie and Mike are invested in Tina’s and Britts’ happiness. But you might as well suck it up. I decided on like day three that your ass was stuck with us too and where I go, I’m dragging your ass.” She told him with a grin. “I’ve always wanted a brother.”

Vince smirked. “I’ve always wanted a sister I can actually stand.”

Thanksgiving at the Adams house that year was totally different. Rae, her brothers, sister and parents came and celebrated the holiday with us. Mom had help cooking so she was a lot less stressed out and to be honest, a lot more likable by the end of the day. I had to head back to school on Friday because we had a game that Saturday. Rae and Robyn stayed with the family and come home on Sunday. The break was cool. I felt regenerated; I’d reconnected with my peeps. Emailing, texting and skyping was cool, but seeing them in person really just made things feel right again. I was able to talk some shit out with Zizes and knew more about a decision I’d been trying to make since the start of school. I had such a great holiday that I even got some time on the field that game. When classes started that Monday, I made arrangements to meet with my advisor. I declared my majors, software engineering and computer science. I knew how I was going to give my Little Bird the future she deserved, and it started that Thanksgiving holiday.


	6. Bitch, Try, California Love & When I Think About Cheatin'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to KayBee80 & Illiandyanndra who have been Beta rock stars for all of my thirteen stories
> 
> Ms.LadyThankYouVeryMuch…Thank you very much, Your review inspired the first section!

Bitch (Meredith Brooks)  
Sue Sylvester PoV

As I walked down the halls of my school; Figgins could claim dominion over it all he wanted, the whole McKinley High population knew who was in charge and it sure as hell wasn’t him; I found myself smirking. Thanksgiving break started at noon, so soon I would have five and a half days when I didn’t have to see any of these disappointed wastes of human flesh. Even more satisfying was the fact that one of my alumnae Cheerio’s vocal stylings had been beautifying Lima’s radio air waves all morning. My happiness scared more than one of the students. However it was mirrored in the faces of my new Unholy Trinity and their red haired cohort. Speaking of gingers... I altered my course to take me past the office of our school’s guidance counselor, though how a crazy person can give others counsel, I had yet to understand. “Hey, Little Anal Annie,” I barked making her jump and sent little bottles of hand sanitizer all over her desk. “I need the phone number for Mop and Glow in New York.”

Pillsbury had a tiny hand pressed against her even tinier breasts as if she could calm her racing heart from the outside. “Really Sue, while I am sure that you were referring to my OCD as my being anal retentive, the fact that even I know that nomenclature belongs to an adult film means that calling me that was very inappropriate.” She chided. “I suppose that your expression of obvious joy is because you have heard of Mercedes’, Sam, and Noah’s successful Halloween concert and heard Mercedes’ duet with Jill Scott and would like to call William to gloat in what you believe is his mistaken choice of the New Direction’s Rising Star?” she asked with a look in her eye that was almost, dare I say it, dirty. But I noted that she was writing the number for me on a post it note even as she spoke.

“Wow, Ginger Care Bear, I didn’t think you had it in you to sic me on Schuester.” I taunted.  
She simply shrugged. “I told William far too many times that he was only doing himself and Rachel a disservice by favoring her so much over the other, equally talented, kids. So perhaps I am enjoying this just a bit.” 

I closed her door. “I know how you can enjoy it even more.” I grabbed her phone and quickly dialed the number on the note. Gaining my respect far more than I thought possible, Pillsbury quietly pressed the speaker phone button and sat back to enjoy the show. 

“Good morning?” Schuester said a little cautiously. I knew that dialing from the school line was a good idea. He would answer because it could have been the She-Bieste or Dough Girl, but instead…

He got me. “Morning Brillo Head…how does it feel to be so epically wrong about your Broadway darling Delusional Berry versus my Cheerio and Warner Recording Artist Mercedes ‘Already being called the new Aretha’ Jones?”

Schuester gave a put upon sigh. “I’m not sure what you are talking about. Rachel is in school at Tisch and Mercedes is in school here in New York too. I know that she, Sam and Puck had that deal with Warner Music, but they only moved here in August.” He sounded confused.  
Emma and I exchanged telling looks. “You really don’t pay any attention to the world around you at all do you Schuester? Did you have to take a lot of yoga to be able to get your head that far up your own ass? Doesn’t that brillo pad you call hair give you indigestion rubbing against your stomach that way?” 

“Sue, if you just called to insult me; I can save the school board a lot of money by hanging up now.” He whined. 

I chuckled. “You really don’t have any idea. Jones…the black girl that both the Pillsbury Dough Girl and I saw for the talent she is, the one you only used to sway in the background behind Berry and belt out glory notes until your entire choir rebelled, the one who basically won you nationals year before last and then won it for Cochrane last year...beating your ‘Chosen One’.” 

“Mercedes, I get who you are talking about…I just don’t get what you are talking about, about her.” 

“Have you listened to the radio this morning, William?” I said his name the same way most people say ‘Ebola’. 

“No.”

“Have you not looked at any of the industry papers yet this morning, William?” This time I went for the same level of disgust people say ‘Dahmer or Bundy’. 

“No, Sue, can you please get to the point, I have to be at the theatre by noon.” He grumbled. 

“Happily, since now I know it is going to wreck your entire day. Mercedes Jones is starring in a major motion picture that will hit theatres the week of Christmas. Aretha along with Lady Lips and Jailbird are all featured on the movie’s soundtrack. A soundtrack which hit stores yesterday. The soundtrack has already sold over two hundred thousand copies on iTunes. Commune renamed their group KAMA, probably to keep from having to credit me on the liner notes but whatever. Their single from the soundtrack has already hit a hundred thousand downloads. Jones’ singles, of which she has three solos on the album, average out to about a hundred and fifty thousand downloads a piece. Her video for the soundtrack’s first official single, a duet with Etta and Jill Scott, has already topped half a million views on Youtube. Even Robert Christgau gave them great reviews. But I guess since none of this involved your beloved ‘Rachet’ it doesn’t penetrate your bubble of hateration…huh?”

‘Oh, good one.’ The female, more annoying, Carrot Top mouthed. She was enjoying this way too much for it to simply be a case of ‘I told you so’.

Sideshow Will seemed shocked. “I…I hadn’t heard. I’ve been very busy with practice.”  
I rolled my eyes. “Oh yeah, and how many times have you managed to see Frodo Berry since she got to New York?”

“Not often. I got her tickets to see a play or two, and helped her arrange a vocal piece for one of her classes.” He hedged. If he admitted to seeing her three or four times it was probably three times that many. “I saw Santana when I was near NYU, but I didn’t get a chance to speak with her.” I doubted that he even bothered to try.

“Well, it’s all over their Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and Instagram accounts. But let me guess...you never bothered to ‘friend’ or ‘follow’ any of your students other than Berry and FrankenTeen.” I drawled while Emma pointed at me and then touched her nose. “You know it sucks to be you, William. You backed the wrong horse and now the kids who could actually give you a boost up your ladder credit me and Shelby Cochrane with their success.”

He scoffed. “My kids all know I cared about them.” 

“I don’t know if you’re trying to lie to me or just yourself.” I told him with a sneer he couldn’t see. “You know what, though? I will give you that statement...Hudson and Berry, they did know that you cared about them. But I know for a fact that both Jones and Hummel used to think you were both racist and homophobic. You growing a backbone near the end of their junior year may have convinced them that you weren’t an intolerant ignoramus; however now they consider you to be a weak and pathetic idiot.” I have to admit that I positively glowed while imparting this particular tidbit of information.

“I was not weak or pathetic or an idiot.” Will defended. 

I laughed loud enough to cover Emma’s disbelieving giggles. “Buttchin, I’m going to give you one example that truly exemplifies the fact that you were and still are a weak, pathetic idiot. Remember back to not long after you first formed your dumbass glee club, you got fooled into thinking that your controlling, domineering wife was pregnant… to the point that she was supposedly showing? She commanded you to give up everything that you loved even while she lied to you about said fake ass pregnancy…and you did it. The worst part is that that wasn’t even the worst/best example of how weak, pathetic and idiotic you really are.”

“Good bye Sue.” He tried to cut me off. 

Fortunately he was too weak and lily livered to actually hang up in my face. “You’ll go when I’m done tormenting you with the sins of your past, Bustin Timberfake. Now, I have it on good authority that one of the reasons you refused to put Martha Wash front and center was because you felt that she didn’t have the right look. One that the judges could go for. One that would get the dirty old men all hot and bothered. Well allow me to disabuse you of that thought as well. Apparently someone… ‘Young Burt Reynolds’,” I added soto voice, “created a fan page dedicated just to her massive, though firm from months of hard work and conditioning on the part of yours truly, backside. Said fan page now has a quarter of a million followers. In preparation for this call I also found a fan site now dedicated to all parts of the voluptuous Sassy Hag started by some Japanese Businessman offering her ridiculously large amounts of yen for her dirty lingerie. I believe that we can agree that your stupid supposition was just that...stupid...and that it was totally without merit.”

“It wasn’t that.” He tried to defend. 

“Well the please explain to me what it actually was. What reason did you have for always elevating the the Munchkin above the Diva? Clearly the Diva has more talent…discovered and offered a recording contract before she even graduated high school. Her ambition and drive seem to surpass your precious Berry’s too. Full time student, full time artist…and according to a person I happen to have blackmail material on in the Columbia registrar’s office, she’s carrying a three point six so far for her first semester while recording an album and launching a soundtrack. Obviously she is at least as attractive to the male subspecies. The fansite springing up and the constantly rising numbers of followers on her Instagram work as proof of that. She has shown that she is definitely smarter; after all no matter how you slice it, Ivy League trumps all others. So please, Will, enlighten me. What logical reason could you possibly have had for backing Berry over Jones?”

All there was, was silence, followed shortly thereafter by the buzzing of a busy signal. Ginger Rogers looked over at me and giggled. “Guess he couldn’t think of a single one.” 

I smirked. “You know Emmy Lou Pasty…you aren’t half bad when you take a step onto the dark side. You should join me over here…we have cookies.” I left her to her pre-break cleaning and started plotting how I was going to find out what Schuester had done to make her finally see him for the curly haired jellyfish he was …yup the life of Sue Sylvester was damn near perfect…if only that last bell would hurry up and ring.

Try (Colbie Caillat)  
Quinn PoV

I had found a home at Yale that I honestly thought I would never find outside the bedroom I had resided in at the Jones home sophomore year. I had hoped to like my roommate, but Taylor was above and beyond any mere hope. She was a dream roommate. She was like the perfect blend of Mercedes and Santana with enough Moma Dani in her to keep her nice and mellow. Topanga and Kat were meshing well with each other and with Taylor and me too. In fact we made plans to spend a girls weekend in Manhattan after we all returned from Thanksgiving. James’ roommates have almost all assimilated well with my roommates. Only Victor still had trouble getting along with the rest of us. To us he seemed to be too reticent and quiet and I think that the rest of us were loud enough to draw attention to him and his creeper type watching of everyone he encountered. I was hopeful that since his five roommates were outgoing people…for the most part…Victor might actually evolve from his creepiness and into something resembling normal human behavior. Unfortunately things outside the dorm weren’t quite as perfect. 

A lot of the guys around that campus were really just assholes. They seemed to think that simply because they had money they had the right to have whatever or whoever they wanted. Including me. Perhaps because I had the look of a WASP princess, all the self-important WASP princes decided that I should leave James and become my mother. For the most part I had no problem handling them. But it was starting to cause a strain in my relationship with James. He felt justifiably disrespected and really wanted to put those guys into their place…especially a doucehbag named ‘Biff’ McIntosh. McIntosh was old money. His grandfather had known my grandparents and according to Biff he’d always regretted the fact that Grandfather won the heart of lady fair. He seemed to think that he would regain some sort of family honor by gaining me as his ‘future Mrs. McIntosh’. The jackass seemed to think that the way to go about that was to hit on me in front of James. Then he seemed shocked when his advances were rebuffed. Biff had redoubled his efforts after James had trounced him in an in class debate in their shared microeconomics class. Apparently the idiot thought that the perfect revenge for what was an abject humiliation was to try even harder to steal James girl. However, I had finally learned to be loyal and faithful. I wasn’t undoing three years of hard work to fool around with a dickhead and hurt another really good man.

It was all coming to a violent head very quickly, so I decided that James and I needed some time away. The weekend in New York, helping Mercedes, Sam and Noah been a nice breather and really had strengthened our relationship. It allowed us to reconnect physically and to have some time to relax and talk about our feelings and what had been going on with us and around campus. I hoped that a date weekend in New Haven would have the same effect. Yale even made it easy for us. None of our friends’ schools released classes before the Tuesday before Thanksgiving; however Yale didn’t have any classes after Friday afternoon the week before Turkey Day. I asked James if he would simply tell his mother that we’d be home early Monday rather than Saturday. Then I told him to pack as if he were leaving on Friday as we’d originally planned. 

“Peaches, what have you got planned?” He asked me after agreeing to do as I’d asked. Then he kissed me until I was breathless.

I smiled. “It was supposed to be a surprise, but…I guess I can clue you in. We’re leaving campus and spending all day Saturday and Sunday until check out on Monday together, just the two of us.” I said as I wrapped my arms around his waist. “No, idiots trying to step to your girl. None of the black girls on campus seeing us together and shooting me death glares. No one bothering us, or telling us we’re too loud. No Harrison or Brad needing something from your room. No Taylor rushing in with her hands over her eyes for her charger because Chad was supposed to call her and her battery was low. Just you and me and a king sized bed.” I leaned into him, biting back a moan at the thought of having more than a few uninterrupted minutes with him. 

“Why, Miss Fabray, whatever shall we do for an entire weekend with just the two of us and a king sized bed?” James taunted before capturing my lips in a searing kiss. I could feel him getting hard against my stomach and really, really wished that it was a lot closer to Friday afternoon. “I guess since you told me your surprise, I can tell you mine. I made us reservations for Zinc for Friday night. I wanted some time alone with you too.” 

“Zinc, oh you fancy now, huh?” I shot back teasingly. 

James threw back his head and laughed, drawing multiple eyes to us. “You know the first time I saw you I thought you were as white as mayonnaise. Now you’re quoting Drake?”  
I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, I’m quoting the oh so hard hip hop artist from Canada who got his start on a Teen Nick show…that makes me so very ethnic.” 

“You make a valid point.” James agreed. “So where are we gonna stay if we aren’t staying in our dorm rooms?”

I shrugged. “I made us reservations too, the Courtyard. I mean, I can get something better if you don’t want to stay there.” I said realizing that he might really be used to going places a lot better than that. I know Mercedes’ family considered Courtyard Marriots something of a last resort.

“Naw, that’s fine Peaches. I don’t want you to spend too much on something, well not frivolous, but not an actual necessity.” He told me with a gentle, little kiss. “So what’s your plan, Peaches?”

“Well, you finish your econ class at two right?” he nodded. “Well, mine is over before you go in for that one…so we can pack either my car or your SUV and head out as soon as you’re done. Then we can get dressed in our room for dinner…” 

He smiled his sexiest smile. “I’m loving that plan…and after dinner you can be my dessert.”  
The week before November Recess began crawled by. It really seemed as if there were like thirty five hours in every day rather than just twenty four. However, I did use all that time wisely. I kept my depo appointment at Student Health Services, I managed to get a slot at what seemed to be the only place in New Haven that actually did waxing services and got everything taken care of on that front. I even took a couple of hours, drove to Milford and hit the mall with Taylor, Topanga and Kat. By the time we left Victoria’s Secret, the shopping card Russell had given me before school started was totally tapped out, but it was well worth it.  
Friday morning I packed my bags very carefully. I had my two large rolling bags that would go with me to Lima, and a smaller one that was full of the six different lingerie sets and three date appropriate dresses as well as the matching heels and accessories. I only bothered to take one day trip outfit since I didn’t really plan to leave the room much at all. Both James and I made time to load our bags into the back of his SUV before our first classes. Topanga was heading home after her last class as was Kat. Taylor didn’t feel it was a good use of her resources to fly home to Utah for just a week, so she was staying and working on three different projects for her classes and her extracurriculars. I had invited her home with me, but she was very serious about all the extra stuff she was doing and trying to get the freshman female spot on the student advisory council second semester. She was driven in a way that was far more than even I was used to, and I had been mentored by Sue Sylvester. 

That afternoon after James finished his economics class, I met him outside Stiles Hall. Our hello kiss quickly grew heated and I knew for sure that I’d made the right choice in arranging us some time alone. We ignored McIntosh’s borderline racist comments to our love and made our way quickly to James’ car. We had both made sure to say goodbye to our roommates before we left for classes that morning. I think it took longer to walk to James car than it ever had before. The drive to the hotel wasn’t very long and check in went smoothly despite the fact that James was teasing me to the point that I was ready to throw him to the lobby floor and have my way with him right then and there. Our room was on the fifth floor, a nice room with a king sized bed, TV, dresser and table. James had brought up both of our bags. He carried them over to the room’s table/desk apparatus. 

As soon as his hands were free, I was back in his arms. We kissed. Despite our passionate embrace in the quad and the teasing in the lobby, it started out tentative, a seeking kiss, quickly rising in intensity. Our lips parted, tongues seeking each other out. James stood and pulled me tight. I reveled in the feeling of his strong muscles under his clothes, my hands journeying up his back and over his shoulders. All the while our tongues and lips danced, a frenzy of licking and kissing. The sensations came at me rapidly, one thing after another. First there was the feel of James's tongue in my mouth and then his lips on my neck. James kisses were always perfect. They managed to be both tender and deliciously aggressive. Next was the feel of his large, strong hands on my breasts. Even through the fabric of my bra, blouse, and sweater, James's touch sent a shiver down her torso. I let out a gentle moan.

I quickly reached down and grabbed at the bottom of his shirt, pulling it upwards. James broke off the kiss, sliding his shirt off and tossing it aside. He had a gorgeous physique that I truly loved. He was broad of shoulder and chest with exceptionally well-defined muscles. He looked like an even more built black version of Michelangelo's David. James undressed me with a deftness that only came from practice. There I stood in that hotel room, a young, pretty former cheerleader and an active member of the god-damned Ivy League, allowing James to strip me naked. I hadn’t even checked to see if the drapes were close. And I found that I really didn’t care. Off went my sweater, discarded as a mere annoyance. Next was my blouse, followed by the unbuttoning of my jeans. I shimmied out of them, and stood kissing James in my new jewel tone blue VS Very Sexy push-up bra and matching cheekini panties. 

James kissed my neck and I couldn’t help but notice my hand upon his shoulder. My English-French genetic heritage had left me with skin of the palest white. It contrasted sharply with James's deep brown flesh. I found it such a pleasing juxtaposition. On it went, James's hands expertly undoing my bra. My breasts spilled free, his hands exploring our nakedness and I moaned as his strong fingers pinched my erect nipples. I heard myself whimpering as my arousal grew, warm tingles of pleasure flowing through my torso. We were sexually in-synch, and had been since Prom night six months before, a realization which still filled me with joy. Having not made love in several weeks, the sex would be even more intense and satisfying.  
James took my breasts into his mouth, sucking on each nipple in turn. I ran my hands over his bare head, pushing his face against my breasts. I knew that James loved it when I used naughty language when we were making love. I loved his reaction to my dirty talk, so I allowed myself to sink into that frame of mind. "Oh, that's so fucking good," I sighed. "Suck my tits, Baby. Please suck them hard."

James obliged, attacking my nipples enthusiastically. He truly enjoyed them despite their lack of size; that made me feel wonderfully sexy. I knew that he liked also the color of my light pink areolas. He pulled me even closer to him with growing eagerness, his hands slid down into my panties pushing them down as he massaged my ass. A few moments later I was completely naked in his arms, his face rose from my tits. We kissed our mouths wide-open and tongues battling. I reached down and unbuttoned his jeans. A surge of excitement swept her. I always loved the feeling of James’ cock whether it be in my hand, mouth or my pussy.

Almost unconsciously, I dropped to my knees. James breathed in, a silly grin on his face. Yeah, I smirked to myself, he was definitely anticipating what was coming next. He knows I'm going to suck his dick and he can't wait. It was one of the things that we’d both grown to love. I didn’t think I could ever tell anyone, not even Mercedes how much I enjoyed sucking James’ cock. Just the thought of what I was about to do excited me even more. I unzipped his jeans, pushing them down. I almost laughed when I realized that James wore dark blue briefs almost the same color as my lingerie. A huge bulge was already stretching them. James stepped out of his jeans and I ran my hands over his thighs. They were impressive, as rock-hard and defined as the rest of his physique. I turned my attention back to his crotch.  
Reaching up, I pushed down his briefs and got my first look of the day at his cock. It was so big, and already almost completely hard. Eagerly, I reached out and grasped its base, stroking James up to full hardness. 

I tried to guess James's length, but couldn't be certain. The only other penis I had really paid attention to had been about nine and half-inches long and felt huge on that one occasion when I had allowed it to be used on me. James was longer by more an inch, however. I had long ago reached the decision that he was around eleven inches, maybe more, with a pleasing thickness as an added bonus. Kissing the tip tenderly, I took the head into my mouth and sucked hard as James let out a happy gasp. Still grasping the base, I went to work sucking his cock. Back and forth my mouth went, sliding over his shaft. Reaching down, I sought out my clit with my free hand. A lot of women sucked cock out of a feeling of obligation or generosity. They didn't get much out of it personally. I, on the other hand, found that I enjoyed sucking James’ cock. Giving him blowjobs excited me to the point that I frequently enjoyed massaging my clit while licking and sucking James’ sexy erection. That time was definitely special; however, a long anticipated excitement overtaking my far more intensely than I’d ever experienced before while sucking him off. I embraced every moment of my arousal, rubbing my clit back-and-forth rapidly as I sucked James's shaft. He sighed, his hips thrusting forward in precise rhythm to my motions. Before long, he was thrusting enthusiastically forward and groaning. I sucked James for a long time, loving the feel of his rock-hard shaft sliding past my lips. I continued rubbing my clit, my very pronounced excitement still rising. It took me by surprise as it continued to grow far past what I ever believed it could become. Sure, sucking his cock turned me on, but that was something entirely new. 

The thought of how hot I was getting fueled my intensity even further. I grasped James's cock harder, sucking him faster as he groaned. Suddenly, I pulled back off his cock. Moaning, I continued to stroke him furiously as I rubbed my clit. The bundled-up tension burst forth, waves of orgasm pulsing through me. I let out a long squeal, surprising myself. With James I had always cum easily, but it was still stunning to get off while sucking a cock… it had to be a rarity for a woman, a thing virtually unheard of. Then again, I mused, no other woman got to suck James’ cock. When I calmed down, I looked up at James and smiled. "I really love sucking your cock," I admitted.

"I can tell," he whispered happily. I gave him a few further moments of long, leisurely sucking. Pulling away again, I admired his hard-on again. It was long and straight, a deep shade of brown glistening with my saliva. Rising, I kissed James again. I stroked his cock as our tongues danced, my head turned upwards and my blonde hair brushed my shoulders behind her. My chest was thrust outwards, James's hands all over them. I saw, out of the corner of my eye, our reflection in the hotel room’s mirror. We looked like the cover of a porn DVD, his big black muscularity contrasting sharply with my white skin and svelte, feminine form. I led James over to the bed and he followed wordlessly, my hand on his erection the whole time. When we reached the edge of the bed I turned and kissed James again. I pulled him close, my hands running over his ass. 

"I need you inside me, Baby," I moaned as James kissed my neck. Then, I remembered to add, 

"The condoms are in my purse." 

“Thank God, Peaches. I didn’t want to take the time to search through my bag.” James groaned as he found the new box of Trojan Magnums XLs and grabbed a packet. He ripped it open and I took it from him. We kissed, I slid the condom over his cock in a single smooth motion. We fell onto the bed together, James on top. Kissing wildly, he moved his cock into position. Reaching down, I guided him inside myself. I was out-of-my-mind with arousal by that point, my pussy was soaked, and his cock met little resistance. He slid into me in one easy, smooth motion. 

James started fucking me slowly, his long length sliding in-and-out in a steady tempo. He propped himself up on his arms, staring into my eyes as he made love to me. Slowly, his fucking grew more vigorous. He was an athletic, strong man, soon drilling me with a strength and intensity I had grown to love and respond to with my own vigorous arousal. He was like a machine, pounding me with the unremitting rapidity of a jackhammer. I gasped, grabbing his ass and pulling it towards me. "That's it Baby," I sighed. "Fuck me. Like that. That's it, just like that." James lowered his weight onto me fully, burying his face in my shoulder as he fucked me. It was intense and unfettered, almost brutal in its animalistic fervor and I loved every single stroke. I embraced the intensity along with James, screaming and moaning encouragement without cease. "Just like that," I begged. "Just like that. Oh, fuck! That's good." 

I wrapped my legs around his waist, my arms hanging onto his muscular back as he pummeled me ceaselessly. I couldn’t contain my ardor. "Oh, fuck yeah!" I howled. "Give it to me, James! Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me!"

I came again, waves of joyous release pouring over me and carrying me even farther aloft on a tide of erotic frenzy. The final throes were a cacophony of screams and shattering bursts of pleasure arriving one after the other. Throughout it all, there was James's full weight and masculine strength atop my, his cocking driving into me without cease. Then James was kissing me again, the feel of his lips and tongue added to everything else going on. Closing my eyes, I rode out the rest of my orgasm in delighted satisfaction. A short time later, my passion finally drew James into the maelstrom with me. He began moaning intensely. Then he froze, pushing his cock into me as deeply as he could. I felt it throbbing and pulsing inside me, a look of profound release and satisfaction upon James's face.

I felt the last lingering pulsations of James's cock inside me. When it was over, James breathed out and we looked at each other. James kissed me playfully and pulled out. We lay side by side, staring up at the ceiling catching our breath. "That was..." He started to say, searching for the right words. "Absolutely fucking amazing."

"I couldn't have put it better myself." 

He retreated to the bathroom to get rid of the condom. When he got back we got under the covers and I snuggled against him, James wrapping an arm around my shoulders. Neither of us moved or said much, not wanting to break off the sense of quiet intimacy that followed energetic, vigorous lovemaking. I moved my hand down to James's cock. It had grown soft again. Despite the satisfaction I’d been overcome with moments before, I was already yearning for more. I massaged and stroked James, craning my neck to kiss his lips. He returned my kisses, his arousal slowly returning. Soon his cock was hard again. I glanced at the alarm clock on the room’s nightstand. "It's only four thirty," I observed. "Do we have time for another go-round?"

"Definitely." He told me as he reached for another condom. We made love again and then got up and showered together. I moisturized my face and hands with a thick rich face cream and my body with Nest Fragrances moss and mint body cream. I loved the way the cream made me smell. With its light, subtle apple blossom and lily of the valley fragrance, I didn’t need any perfume. Then I drew on a blush pink DKNY seductive lights balconette bra, French thong and garter set. Since it was fall in the northeast, I pulled on a pair of ultra sheer, barely noticeable, thigh high stockings and affixed them to the garter straps. I did my makeup carefully. I avoided the fresh faced innocent look I’d have worn before I met James. Instead I went with a young and trendy smokey eye and dewy, nude lip. I left my hair a little wild rather than smoothing it into a sleek bob. 

As I stepped into bedroom of the hotel room, I wondered for a moment if we could cancel our reservation and stay in the room. He was standing there in just his dark gray slacks, barefooted and bare chested, his back lotioned and almost shiny like freshly polished mahogany. I felt myself getting wet just staring at the wide, sexy expanse of muscles and smooth skin. I drew his attention as he pulled on a wife beater covering himself from my eyes. Without turning around James chuckled. “Sorry Peaches, as hungry as I am for you, my stomach is talking to my backbone. We’re going to make our reservations, so get dressed.” He commanded. I found that that had only made my predicament even worse. My panties were soaking. 

However, I did want him to keep up his strength, so I made myself focus on getting dressed. I donned the coral lace over silk sheath mini dress with its adorable lace three quarter length sleeves. The dress slipped over my modest curves making my legs look long and lean. I further enhanced the illusion of mile long legs with my nude suede, almond toe platform four and a half inch evening pumps. The beigey, tan suede was dotted with rhinestones giving them a sparkle perfect for an evening out. When I stood, James was already behind me pressing kissed to my neck as he zipped up my dress. I threw the necessities into the clutch that matched my shoes and we headed out to the restaurant. Ten short minutes later we’d arrived.

Zinc was an iconic New Haven restaurant not far from the other side of campus. It was the place to eat in New Haven boasting a strict adherence to a seed to plate, local harvest philosophy. It was way fancier than anywhere I had ever gone to eat other than going to the Club with my parents. It was certainly the most expensive date I’d ever gone on. James must have been thinking the same thing. “We’ve come a long way from Breadstix in Lima, huh?” he whispered as the maitre d showed us to our table. 

Our waiter, Ginger, was very kind. She was an older black woman who was efficient and friendly without seeming overtly bothersome. After she took our drink orders, James asked her for appetizer recommendations and she smile widely. “Try the grilled shrimp. They come with gingered red curry sauce, pineapple and pumpkin confit and are served on a scallion pancake. If you have a shellfish allergy or objection then you can go with the vegan sweet potato risotto which is accompanied by porcini mushrooms and fried Brussels sprouts. The duck Nachos are also very popular as is the organic greens salad. But the shrimp and the risotto are my personal favorites.”

I nodded. “The risotto sounds delicious. I’d like to try it.”

“I’ll take the shrimp.” James told her also going with her recommendation. The conversation between James and I had progressed from talk of our classes and professors to a small debate as to the small, sustainable growth the nation’s economy was gaining versus the larger gains that people had hoped for and really needed when Ginger came back with both our drinks and our starter course. We quickly halved our appetizers and traded them so that we’d both gain the full experience of Ginger’s recommendations and she had been amazingly right. They were both amazing. When she returned to take our main course order, we decided to allow her to choose for us. 

“Any dietary constraints or allergies?” she asked before she agreed. 

I shook my head. “I love bacon, but other than that I’m a pretty normal omnivore.” James pointed out that loving bacon was part of being a normal omnivore before he too agreed that he would have no problems with whatever she brought out for us. We talked some more, moving from economics and politics to music and how awesome Mercedes duet with Jill Scott had been. The video had premiered in advance of the record release which we both agreed we were buying on that Tuesday as soon as we could. James said he had even sent out a reminder to his whole family to actually buy the album rather than downloading it from any of the free sites. His uncle was already hyping it up on his radio and television shows. Jill Scott was a good friend of the Steve Harvey Morning Show, she had even acted a guest host a few times. James knowing MeDe just made him work even harder to get the numbers up on the soundtrack and movie. 

When Ginger returned, she came bring not only our dinner but refills of my water with lemon and James Coke. The plate she sat down before James was their sea scallops entree. Seven large round sea scallops, grilled to perfection, lay on a bed of sweet carrot risotto and garnished with a preserved lemon wedge. Beside that lay broccoleaf tossed with pickled mustardseed. My own plate looked just as wonderful. She served me Zinc’s Tuna, grilled yellowfin with tamari cure, vegetable spring rolls, fried spinach tossed with wasabi oil and a chile-garlic sauce. Of course we shared our meals with each other. His scallops were amazing and the carrot was even better than the sweet potato one that we’d had during the first course. We both loved the grilled tuna and the spring rolls were awesome. After dinner we decided to continue the theme of allowing Ginger to pick for us. Her selections were just as on point for dessert as they were with the other two courses. 

She had opted to give James the flourless Mexican chocolate cake which came with a delicious milk chocolate and chile soup topped coconut-milk chocolate foam and drizzled with salted caramel gelato. She placed the other plate in front of me and I almost swooned in delight. There were three praline financiers, drizzled with Meyer lemon curd and accompanied with a demi tasse of cappuccino semifreddo. We each tasted everything and were so happy with the results that Ginger ended up getting a fifty three dollar tip. There were many who would have balked at basically tipping fifty percent, but the meal was so great and we’d not have had as pleasant a dinner without her. But we did leave before she came back to see how much we had left for her. 

After dinner we went for a short walk in a nearby park before returning to our hotel room and basically making love for the rest of the weekend. We flew back to Ohio, flying to Cleveland where we spent Monday and Tuesday with his family before heading to Lima to spend Wednesday evening with the New Directions. We got there before Burt or Carole got home and let ourselves in to find almost all of our friends in the basement chilling out and teasing Finn. I was able to get in a good taunt of my own. I’m sure that he was expecting me to harass him about what had happened between him and Lauren, but I knew that I hadn’t been faithful long enough to be able to throw stones. Besides…his face was red as hell, MeDe’s handy work if I wasn’t mistaken. We talked and chatted. Playing with my Beth and Azimio’s Robyn, catching up and asking a million and three questions of Mercedes, Sam and Puck about the big party they had attended the night before. 

“It was like two in the morning before we got home. Then we boned until Mercedes had to do that phone interview with a radio station out of Atlanta with Ms. Jill.” Puck laughingly told us. 

“We had to take sleep this afternoon because we never managed to do more than catch a few cat naps since like Monday.”

“So was it worth it?” Adams asked them. 

Puck nodded vigorously. “Of course it was worth it. Cede did that special thing with her tongue that I like and Sam busted off all over her tits for me.” he responded happily. 

Sam reached over and pushed Puck off the edge of the coffee table he was sitting on. “You’re so lucky you’re so hot. Yes, Adams, working our asses off and never really getting enough sleep is worth it. The numbers are soaring on iTunes and I really think we’re gonna make it. I’d apologize for Puck, but we all know my boyfriend.” 

The rest of our friends laughed, but Vince raised his hand. “Umm…I know I’m new and all but I cannot be the only one wanting to know that the special thing with her tongue is, right?”

Blaine chuckled. “Oh, you aren’t. Even I want to know. Cedes has given me some amazing things to try on Kurt and he always loves them.” 

“Oh was she the one who told you about the spiral lick trick?” Kurt gasped. Blaine nodded emphatically. “Mercedes Antoinette Jones, you are supposed to be my best friend. How could you teach Blaine how to do that and not me.” he said his voice filled with offense.  
MeDe rolled her eyes. “And he used it on you didn’t he? Boom! Best friend of the year right here.” 

“I wanna know.” I whined. 

Dave nodded. “Come on Jones, inquiring minds wanna know.” He challenged.

MeDe looked embarrassed, but she was not about to back down from her former bully. “Fine. It’s just kind of a spiral swirl lick when you’re going down on your man. Don’t just keep on moving up and down; use your tongue to slowly wind around his cock. Swirl up the shaft with the tip of your tongue and then when you're at the top, slide your whole mouth down and then up, with really strong suction.” 

“You can do it on other places too…” Blaine said mysteriously. 

James and I exchanged a long look before we both started laughing. “It is so surreal to know that Kurt Hummel is ‘doing that’.” The rest of the room joined the laughter. Finn had apparently shared with his roommate how uptight Kurt had always been. To be honest he still was; he just made allowances for the messiness that is sex. The night disintegrated into ever increasing game of teasing and taunting one-upmanship. It was great. 

James and I made it back to Cleveland the next day after spending the night in my room. We had breakfast with Shelby, Beth, Frannie and David…he and Shelby were still claiming to be just friends, but I noticed that there were certainly a whole lot of Spanish packaged foods in the fridge and pantry and Beth was calling him ‘Viejo’. My little girl was already better at Spanish than Mr. Schuester had ever been. 

Then we went to James’ mom’s house and Ms. Kyleen welcomed me to the family in much the same way Mama Dani originally had, with large amounts of amazing tasting food. She served the bottles of wine I had brought her from my parent’s wine cellar, which Daddy had had put in just a year before everything had changed. It was really just a walk-in closet that had been lined with cedar and oak shelves. But they had about a hundred bottles down there. Probably they wouldn’t miss two. 

I wasn’t the only white girl there, two of James male cousins had white wives and another had a white girlfriend. Though when I mentioned that my soul sister was a black girl who was pretty much married to white guys some of the younger men, including one who was there with his white wife, had a problem with that. James shut him down with a quickness. Then his wife took a turn at him. It was really funny and the rest of the family let him know that he was being a huge hypocrite too. Dinner lasted for like the rest of the day. On Saturday, James, his immediate family and I went back to Lima and spent the day with my family. Kyleen fell all kinds of in love with Beth and the feeling was completely mutual. By the end of the day Beth was chanting ‘Nonna’ wanting Kyleen to stay with her forever. It almost broke my heart the next morning when we had to leave as well and Beth hugged us both and said she would miss us. Mercedes, and her crew stopped by to say good bye to Beth before they headed out too. Saul and Mills asked Shelby if it would be okay if Beth was their flower girl at their wedding ceremony the next summer. 

The flight back to Yale was quick. James and I were stronger than ever and I was secure that Beth was growing to love him as much as a daughter should. If anyone had told me eighteen months before that I would be as happy, honestly truly happy as I was that Thanksgiving I doubt I would have been capable of believing them. I still had trouble believing that I deserved it. But unlike poor Finn…whether I deserved it or not. I was happy and I would do whatever it took to stay that way.

California Love (Tupac)  
Tina PoV

I had found my place in life and it was California. No one looked at me strangely if I was a little weird and liked to dress as if I was either fresh off the set of ‘The Originals’ or an Austin Powers movie. No one huffed and grumbled behind me in line at the coffeehouse if I ordered a tall, half whole, half skim, caramel macchiato with two extra shots of espresso and three extra shots of caramel. Heck, chances were that their order was just as convoluted and complex as mine. There were tons of things to do on campus, tons of things to do in the area. In order to not lose track of things and end up flunking out of school, I forced myself to get into a routine early and to stick to it. 

I had six classes, a lab and my freshman seminar every week. My plan was to get my core curriculum classes out of the way by the end of my first semester sophomore year and then I would be able to concentrate completely on my major classes. On odd days, my first class started at nine, American History, and my last class ended at two. Then on Tuesday and Thursday my classes didn’t start until ten and other than my six o’clock biology lab on Tuesday and my four o’clock music seminar class on Thursday, I was done by three. Since I didn’t have to be up at five thirty or six, getting up at seven or seven thirty to go for a run with DJ wasn’t as hard as I thought it would have been. We’d run from Stern Hall all the way to the MLK Jr. Student Union and then back to the dorm. After we showered and got dressed, we’d head to breakfast and DJ would head off to class while I’d head to the library. Usually I’d use that hour or two to get any work done I needed to do for class. I much preferred studying and working on papers while everyone else was in class. That allowed me to play CoD or Halo in the evenings when there were people in the dorm to play with. 

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after American History, I had psych one oh one, and finished off with freshman Latin. I’d taken Latin in middle school, my Dad was certain that it would help improve my science grades, it hadn’t. But it was recommended for anyone who was going to take a lot of different foreign languages. Which I was going to have to do to satisfy some of my music requirements if I ended up going for a music masters degree. Probably I would have gotten bored with so many hours left between the end of my last class and the start of dinner, and I knew that going back to the room was a bad habit I probably shouldn’t pick up, but there was a modern dance class that I picked up at the extension course building that filled up time and would only help me over all. On even days, my day started with an hour long writing course. Then I had the class portion of my biology class. And it ended with my global poverty and practice class. I used the time between the end of globe pov and the beginning of my lab to study. The very first lab had taught me not to eat dinner right before bio lab. My stomach just wasn’t that strong. It was great since DJ’s bio section shared our lab time she and I were lab partners. 

When people learned that my roommate was also my lab partner they wonder if that wasn’t too much time together, but the truth was that I freaking loved my roommate, which was completely unexpected. She was just so normal, so Type A, but still so…so sweet. Her family was just as bad. Every Sunday when her dad brought her back, he vacuumed the room for us with some special, super high tech, hepa filtering vacuum cleaner. Her ‘godfather’ was a comedian/radio host/ad jingle writer, who told the perfect jokes for every situation…but he never seemed to know when to stop telling them. Her uncle was a club owner/ radio host/garage band musician/ad jingle writer who was totally obsessed with his hair. But I had to say he had some of the best hair I’d ever seen on a guy. He’d heard me singing around the room one of the times he’d come to get DJ and had offered me a spot with his band whenever I needed cash. I was seriously thinking of taking him up on that. Everything in Cali was way more expensive than it was in Lima. When they had found out that Mike and I weren’t going to be able to go home for Thanksgiving, they immediately invited us to their house for the big meal. 

Mike was another wonderful part of being in California. He and I had a skype date every evening at eight. Since his course load was twice as full as mine, his days started at six. He got up every morning to go work out and practice whatever moves they were learning in his dance classes at the time. Then he showered, ate and headed off to his eight am organic chem class. He had what DJ and Nevel both called his ‘real’ classes until one or one thirty, depending on the day, then he had his dance and performance classes in the afternoons. He was so happy. Every Friday after his last class he threw some clothes in a bag and drove over from Stanford to spend the weekend with me. We would skype with whichever of the New Directions was around, eat dinner, veg out and make love. Making love was interesting on the twin bed, but it had caused us to explore our sexual creativity and it had led to us discovering my new favorite position. We slept tightly wound together to make sure that neither of us would hit the floor during the course of the night. 

We’d decided that since we wouldn’t have time to drive back to Lima for Thanksgiving holiday and we couldn’t afford to fly back, we’d save up and get a room at a hotel for the break. It was a great idea. We checked in after classes on Tuesday and other than running out to grab take out for lunch and dinner, we made love and worked on school stuff. We barely got dressed at all other than Thursday. On Thanksgiving, we woke up at nine that morning and took a long, hot, sexy shower together. I got dressed first in a beautiful deep peach colored silk and lace bra and panty set before pulling on a gorgeous jersey, blue, retro, mixed paisley print, fit and flare dress that I had gotten from the BCBG outlet during the shopping spree. I knew that we’d be around a family and the dress was long enough without being dowdy. Paired with a pair of wedges that played up the melon pink in the midst of the all the blues, the dress looked fresh and young while still giving a nod to the sixties. Mike climbed into a pair of black jeans and a blue pull over. Once he shoved his feet into socks and shoes we headed out. We swung through Berkeley so that I could grab the hostess gift that I’d accidentally left wrapped in the top of my closet and we followed the directions DJ had given us to get to her house at 1882 Girard Street. It was a thirty minute drive and despite having been alone together for pretty much forty-eight hours by that point we still had plenty to talk about. 

Thanksgiving Dinner was a blast. Mr. Tanner and his fiancée, Vicki, ‘Uncle Jessie’, as he allowed me to start calling him, and Becky, Joey, DJ’s boyfriend Steve and best friend Kimmy Gibbler, as well as DJ, her sisters Stephanie and Michelle and Jessie and Becky’s twin sons Alex and Nicky and then Mike and me all sat down to eat at a little after two. The food was okay, but the entertainment was what made the drive worth it. Kimmy and the adult males all taunted and teased each other to the point that DJ was looking ready to die of embarrassment. Stephanie got in quite a few zingers herself. But Vicki, Becky, Michelle all stayed out of it, just groaning and rolling their eyes at particularly bad jokes and laughing at the best ones. 

I had given the Tanner family a board game called ‘Telestrations’. I had found it online by checking for games that would work well for very large families and accommodate the wide range of ages in the Tanner family. ‘Telestrations’ is like a game of ‘Telephone’ – the game where a person whispers in another person’s ear, who in turn whispers to another person, and so on. Then see how messed up it gets after going through a number of people. But with Telestrations one person writes a phrase, the next person draws a picture of that phrase. Then the picture is passed to another person and they write what they think the picture is. Then it goes to another person who draws a picture of that new phrase. And on it goes. But unlike Telephone, everyone is writing and drawing the whole time – so there isn’t any downtime waiting for it to come around. After dessert, Mr. Tanner insisted that we give it a go. That was truly even more fun than dinner had been. The Tanner family may be very nice and really kind…but they were cutthroat competitors when it came to playing games. We finally begged out at around six and we made love until exhaustion overtook us. 

The rest of the weekend flew by. Before I was ready, Mike was dropping me off at my dorm before running to the airport to pick up Nevel. Those two had bonded really well. I was glad that Nevel really had changed from the asshole he’d been in the videos online. I had had thoughts of introducing Nevel to DJ and seeing if sparks flew, but then I’d met him face to face and realized that the only one of my friends I could possibly introduce him to and have sparks fly would have been Karofsky, and really he wasn’t a friend…not really…more like he was friend adjacent. Anyway once we got back to campus, we had two weeks before finals when culminated right before we went home for Christmas. We knuckled under so hard, DJ didn’t go home until she left campus the day before Mike and I headed back to Lima to spent the almost month long break. 

I never realized how much I would love California…how much I would truly enjoy college and the whole college life experience. But I was quickly turning into a full fledge California Girl, and I kind of liked it.

When I Think About Cheating (Gretchen Wilson)  
Finn PoV

Talking everything through with Puck and the guys had really helped. It was a huge relief to know that chances were good that I’d been too drunk to get a usable erection. The thought that I had slept with that girl had made me throw up more than once. The thought that I could hurt Lauren like that was just gross. The next morning while Kurt, Vince and Mom were in the kitchen making dinner, Burt asked me how things were at school and everything just spilled out. When he looked at me, I could see the disappointment in his face. “Finn, your mother told you about what happened with your biological father and his trouble with drugs and alcohol.” I nodded. It had come out the year before when I was trying to decide on what to do if I didn’t get into any of the colleges I’d applied to. “That kind of thing usually runs in bloodlines. Maybe you should avoid drinking hard liquor all together.” 

“You really think so?” I asked him. 

Burt nodded a little. “I know everyone thinks that partying is just part of the college experience, but binge drinking like that isn’t good for anybody. If you have addictive personality disorder running in your family it can only lead to bad things. Bad things like passing out and ending up breaking your own heart as well as the heart of a young lady who was better to you than any other girl you’ve ever dated. Or even worse things.” 

“I don’t ever want to feel like I did that next morning ever again.” I admitted. “The hangover, not the ‘oh Grilled Cheezus please tell me I didn’t’ moment. That was even worse than the pain and extremely aggressive need to hurl.”

“So don’t drink. I haven’t had anything more than a beer or two since before Kurt was born, and I don’t feel like I’ve missed out on anything.” Burt told me with a gentle smile.  
He made it seem so easy. But that’s when I realized that it would be very easy not to drink, especially before I turned twenty-one. And probably even after. I heard one senior say that any DD who could drive stick was worth their weight in gold. I could be that guy. That guy would be a lot better to be than being the guy who gets falling down drunk. “I’ve been doing the counseling that Lauren said I needed and I think it is helping. I mean, I never realized that I had abandonment issues that made me cling to the girls I was with even if they weren’t right for me. Dr. Baker thinks that the flip side of that was messing up things with Lauren…giving her an excuse to leave as a kind of self…self…”

“Self-fulfilling prophecy?” he supplied. “Yeah, sometimes when we really fear something, we end up making that very thing happen.” 

“But what can I do about it now? How do I fix things?” I felt my chest getting tight like it does when I need to cry but everything is too intense to let the tears through. 

Burt grasped my shoulder like he did when he was trying to give me or Kurt some of his strength. “You’re gonna have to give her time, Son. You’re gonna have to rebuild the trust that was broken. Have you been seeing other girls while you’re supposed to be doing the friend thing with Lauren?” 

I shook my head. “There is this one girl that keeps asking me out, she is one of the other Buckeye cheerleaders, not the one I woke up next to…a different one. But she is skinny and flat chested, the only thing that she has going for her really is her hair is really pretty.” 

Burt shook his head, “Let me guess, her hair is long and thick and medium brown.” He muttered. When I nodded he laughed. “So her hair is like Lauren’s. You can’t replace Lauren with a knock off...it’s not fair to either girl to try. And I will say that if you want Lauren to take you back, dating anyone other than her…sleeping with anyone other than her...is a very, very bad idea.”

Then the game came on and Burt and I turned our attention to the TV. All through the game and dinner I tried to think about everything I needed to say to Lauren. Before I went to bed I texted her and asked if we could get together and talk the next day. She texted me back that she was going shopping in the morning with her mom but we could hook up after lunch. The morning crept by. I’d gotten up early and Vince and I ran to McKinley, snuck into the weight room using my key to the auditorium. I did push-ups until I just couldn’t anymore before I moved on to my back to do as many crunches as I could stomach. Vince chose to work out with the weights instead. Then we ran back home showered and packed up our stuff. We would need to leave Lima right after lunch to make the buses which were pulling out at four o’clock. We said our goodbyes to Kurt and Burt and mom and then we headed out. We met Lauren at the mall. Vince was nice enough to go and find a girl to flirt with while Lauren and I talked. 

“Alright Hudson, spill.” She commanded. I got hard as a rock. I knew she didn’t mean to, but she’d totally sounded like she did when she was Ma’am giving Finnie orders. 

“I…I” oh god…dead mailman. “I want to talk to you about us. I think that now that we’ve had a cooling off period and I’ve been seeing Dr. Baker for a while now…maybe now will be a good time to talk about what happened and how we can move past it.”

Lauren looked at me. I couldn’t help but wonder if she had been taking lessons from Mercedes in reading people’s souls just by looking at them. “Okay, I’m willing to believe that you didn’t sleep with the cheerchick, but how do I know that this isn’t going to be a cycle? You fuck up, I break up with you. You apologize and try and win me back…I finally take you back and we’re good for a while, then you do something else boneheaded and fuck up again?” 

“I, well I mean…I know that I need to rebuild the trust that I broke with you. So I’m not going to drink any more…like ever. Cause, I mean drugs and alcohol killed my real dad so touching them would be a bad idea for me anyway.” I told her honestly. “And I’m gonna stay faithful to you even if we aren’t together.” 

“Really?” she scoffed. “Because that Christy girl on the squad swears that she’s going to be your next girlfriend.” 

“Who is Christy?” I asked confused. 

Lauren softened a little. “Good answer.” 

“Lauren, I don’t want anyone else. I promise. The thought that I had slept with that girl that night bothered me so bad that I couldn’t eat. I dropped ten pounds. Coach is happy, but I’m miserable.” I told her hoping that she would hear the truth in my words. That she would feel how much I still loved her. 

She gave me that deep, searching look again. “Alright Finn…we can work on rebuilding the trust between us. But it doesn’t mean we’re automatically back together. It means that we’re working on getting back together. You’re going to have to promise not to drink and to continue to see Dr. Baker. I’ll look into getting some help with trusting you again. But Finn…you need to put that cheer bitch in check next time she tries to push up on you. The fact that you haven’t isn’t helping the whole trust thing…at all.” 

After talking to Burt I understood what she meant. I’d kind of been stringing the girl along hoping that if I didn’t get Lauren back I could use the other girl so I wouldn’t be completely alone. That was a shitty thing to do to both of them. “I’ll make sure that she understands that even if you never take me back, I’m gonna stay loyal to you. You are who I want.”

“Okay, you do that and we’ll take a month to six weeks to work on the whole trust thing.”  
Lauren said sternly. “Then we can try dating…but there won’t be any Finnie and Ma’am time until we can both trust each other and make sure that I won’t hurt you physically…because to be honest there are still times when I want to punch you in your face.”

I didn’t want to have to wait so long, but it was my own stupid fault. So I couldn’t not accept her terms. “Okay. we didn’t do much in the way of dating last time. This will be our chance to make things different. I mean…”

“I get it Finn. Now you owe Vince a whole lot. If he hadn’t told me that you cried yourself to sleep every night that first week and how you’ve been pretty much depressed since we broke up…I don’t think I’d be willing to give this whole thing another shot.” I nodded and tried to think of what I could do for Vince to thank him. “Finn…I…it really hurt me that you didn’t…that I wasn’t more important to you than partying and getting fucked up…that I wasn’t worth enough for you to be faithful.” She finally said quietly. 

“It was never that. You are so important. You mean so much to me. If you didn’t I would never have fucked up. I just…I love you Lauren. I love you so much. Part of me kept waiting for you to be disappointed in me and leave…so I made it happen.” I whispered. 

“I have insecurities too Finn. And you played into all of them. It is gonna take us time and work to get over this.” She told me sternly. I nodded. “You’d better hit the road. If you want to make starter next year, you can’t be late to games and shit.”

“You’re right.” I said gathering our stuff to throw away. “Lauren…thank you.” I drew her into a hug. 

We parted on good terms and over the course of the week we started working on rebuilding our relationship…becoming us again. We also looked into doing some kind of couples counseling with one of the school’s psych professors. A few of them, like Dr. Baker, were available to talk with the students and help them with their problems. But because Lauren had her Invitational in Vegas that next weekend and I had a game, we agreed to wait until we returned from the holidays to take advantage of the psychologists. First we had to focus on our sporting events and our finals…but not in that order. 

I knew that it was a long road ahead, but as we were on the bus heading to Ann Arbor that evening after Lauren and I agreed to work not just on being friends but on getting back together again for real, one of my teammates started blaring a song that he had just downloaded that week. Mercedes, Puck and Sam were singing about being fighters and never giving up. In that moment I realized two things; first of all they were going to be f’ing huge, and B, what Lauren and I had had was so totally worth fighting for. I might not have felt like I deserved happiness, but I knew that she did. So I was going to make sure that she always was.


	7. It's Growing, Savin' Me & Its My Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rest In Peace  
> broomstick flyer
> 
> ***One of the very best Harry Potter Fiction writers there ever was. You will be greatly missed.***  
> ***MerlinsApprentice, her fans thoughts, well wishes and prayers are with you and your family during this time of grief and loss***
> 
>  
> 
> AN: THERE IS A NEW POLL! You Can Pick Mercedes SongBird Red Carpet Look. Choices are at the Illy&Anni Yahoo group. Vote until Sunday, April 5th!
> 
> Warning: I took a Dare so there is a sexual situation in this chapter that some may find offensive.

Chapter 7  
Its Growing (James Taylor)  
Aidan PoV

Thanksgiving my senior year was way too hectic for any one soul to deal with. A lot of our college age friends were home, all of Tessa’s brothers and sisters were around. Her family was going to have a grand total of three weddings the next summer and she, and in one case we, were going to be in them. I’d known about her dad’s and Kevon’s…but finding out about her ‘uncle’s’ was something no one in their family was expecting. Tessa was totally happy about it though. She loved Saul and Mills. I hadn’t had a lot of time to talk to them and the time we’d spoken had basically boiled down to their version of the ‘Shovel Speech’, so I liked them just because of how much they loved Tessa. 

Unfortunately, we hadn’t been able to spend the day together. My mom and dad had been invited to the Jones/Puckerman/Altman/Evans Thanksgiving Dinner, but mom had turned down the invitation, instead saying that they had already invited her family to come to our house for dinner. My Dad and I were both a little surprised at that news. It wasn’t our turn to host the Richards family for Thanksgiving that year. But I had noticed that since ‘the incident’ Mom had been slowly but surely pulling back her support of me and Tessa as a couple. At first the two of them had gotten along great. Mom had done cheerleading from pee-wee football all the way through college. So she had loved the fact that I was dating a cheerleader, especially one who was part of the national championship team. But then IT had happen. 

The weekend before Halloween I was supposed to be home alone. Mom and Dad were supposed to be camping with Evan and Stevie at the Cub Scout Spook-a-ree. They had left Friday evening after the game and everything. Tessa was free, the cheerleading state competition, which the Cheerios had won, had been the week before the show choir sectionals, which the New Directions had won. Both of which had already taken place meaning that we didn’t have anywhere to be until Sunday when we were supposed to go worship at the Jones’ church to make up for Tessa missing Temple that Saturday. 

George and Becah knew where she was even though she told them that she was spending the weekend with the newest New Direction girls. The truth was that one of the new girls, Marley was dating Jake and Tessa hated being around the two of them because the two of them made making out without going too far into an Olympic sport. Fire liked Marley, but she said that every time she looked at her she couldn’t help but get grossed out. That night, things started out perfect. We’d had dinner at Hunan Garden, Tessa’s favorite. Then we’d gone for a walk in the park and made out in this gorgeous grotto under a bunch of really old oaks. When we got back to my room, Tessa wanted to play. Hell, I wanted to play. So after a nice quick, hard fuck to get our first orgasms out of the way, we retreated to my bathroom to try something we’d been talking about since prom night and never had the time to try. We turned the shower on a comfortable temperature and let it warm up the bathtub before I got in and Tessa joined me. 

“Alright Tess. I want you to suck my cock first.” I told her keeping my voice strong and commanding. “Fuck.” I hissed as she took me into her mouth. I loved the way her little pink lips looked sucking me. I was hard enough to pulverize diamonds in no time…the anticipation coupled with the sights and sounds of Tessa kneeling between my slightly spread legs blowing me had me aroused in minutes. 

“You sure you’re ready for this, Blaze?” she asked quietly. Tessa had adopted the nickname Blaze for me when she’d looked up the meaning of my name. Since Aidan was Celtic for little fire, she’d really enjoyed going there. 

“Fuck yeah, Fire…Buckbeak isn’t even on the same continent.” I told her referring to the safe word I was to use if things were too much for me. My nickname for Tess wasn’t anywhere near as deep. I’d just gone with the color of her fiery locks. Plus it matched the one she had given me, so it felt kind of perfect.

Her smile was sexy as hell as she gracefully, mostly, climbed to her feet before squatting over my hips and lowering herself down my erection. She worked her hips; the feeling of her pussy enveloping me was different than when she knelt, the visual starker and deeply more erotic. I leaned forward and captured one of her petal pink nipples between my teeth, worrying it with my tongue until her breaths started to come in gasps and pants. Only then did I change to the other and torment that one. Her rising and falling pulled the nubbin away from her body in what had to be delicious pain. My fingers slid up her thigh to find her tiny little clit I stroked it, my thumb massaging it from about an inch above the hood all the way to just above where the clit peaked out. “Oh God Aid.” She moaned as she was overtaken by her first orgasm of the ‘round’. 

The sight and how good she felt pulsing and throbbing around me, the rhythm of her undulations so different from the pounding of the blood in my veins, it was almost too much for my tenuous grasp on my control. My free hand found its way to her mouth. “Get them wet.” I commanded as I shoved two fingers into her mouth. Her talented little tongue licked at my fingers getting them slick. Before she could drag me into cumming hard and early, I pulled my fingers free only to slip the digits into her tight little asshole. “Do it. Do it now.” 

A stream of hot, pale gold liquid came out of her right above where my dick was enveloped in her hot wet heat. “Oh My Fucking GOD!” She screamed. 

My back arched so hard I hit my head on the rim of the bathtub. Tessa was squeezing me so tightly; my screams of pleasure joined hers. “Oh Fuck.” I murmured over and over again as I emptied myself into my girlfriend. We almost never went without condoms, despite Tessa being on the shot, but given what we’d wanted to try there was no way that we could have used one. And that was the best decision ever. Her piss and the slick juices that escaped from around our joining boiled down over my balls making my orgasm the single most intense I’d ever experienced. Tessa’s seemed to go on and on and on until she finally dropped against me panting and whimpering. I pulled my hand from between her legs and the other from her backside. Rinsing them both, I carefully pulled her wet curls back from her face before capturing her lips in a grateful kiss. 

When we could move again we got cleaned up and wrapped up in towels. I opened the bathroom door for her and as soon as we got back in my bed, we attacked each other with our hands and mouths. The intensity of the orgasm from our shower play only made us want more. “Blaze…I want you to fuck my throat.” Fire murmured in my ear after nibbling on my earlobe. 

“I wanted to eat your pussy.” I growled. We quickly decided to do both. Tessa turned across the bed, hanging her head off one side, while she pulled her knees up and spread her legs wide on the other. The height of my bed made it easy for me to pump my hips, drilling my cock in and out not just of her mouth, but of her throat as well. Once my rhythm was well established, I leaned over and buried my face in her cunt lapping greedily at her honey. She tasted so fucking good all I could think of was the taste of us on my tongue. I didn’t hear the door open. I didn’t hear my mother drop the bags she had brought back. I didn’t hear her outraged gasp. I was entirely focused on the pleasure Fire was causing as she moaned and whimpered around my pistoning dick. 

“Aidan Zachary Harding!” my mother shouted. Now that I heard.

I wish that I could say that I stopped. But I didn’t I bit down just hard enough on Tessa’s clit to force her into an orgasm. Just the fact that someone was watching us made me cum even harder than I had in the bathtub. I rolled my head to the side as my body was buffeted by waves and waves of pleasure. I didn’t realize that I was giving my mother a full frontal view of Fire’s spasming pussy and my cum rolling out of it was her walls undulated. 

When we were cognizant enough to realize who was in the room with us, we scrambled to our feet and grabbed pillows and the bedspread to try and cover our nudity and in Tessa’s case the cum quickly running down her thighs and neck. Mom was totally incensed. Apparently she hadn’t felt like sleeping outside in the cooling fall night so she had decided to make the fifteen minute drive back to Lima to sleep in her own bed. On the way to her room, she had heard ‘sounds of distress’ coming from my room and decided to check on me. Mom shouted and fussed. She made me take Tessa home and then I was grounded for a month. . Thankfully I was able to explain everything to my Dad and he managed to talk her down. 

I got really lucky when it was time to go get Dad and Ethan the next afternoon, Mom sent me. Her reasoning was that I might get ‘up to something’ with Tessa during the half hour she would be gone. In the car on the way back, I laid it all out for Dad. Well not all. I didn’t tell him about the very successful ‘golden shower’ experiment. I sure as hell didn’t tell him that I’d gotten off on the idea of getting caught. Instead I just told him that mom had caught us making love and that she had grounded me for a month. 

Mom had told him her version of events which seemed to include Tessa trying to get pregnant, which she, of course hadn’t; and Tessa trying to trap me into marriage…which she, of course, wasn’t. Then the arguing started. Dad didn’t see anything wrong since we were both over the age of consent and George had let him know a long time back that he was pretty sure we were either active or heading that way, and Becah had put Tessa on birth control to be safe. They argued about the duration of the punishment and what Dad saw as Mom’s overreaction. Then they argued about the reason I should have any punishment at all. 

I did get grounded for two weeks. According to dad it was for being devious and not using a condom. Mom said it was for ‘fucking my obviously deviant little girlfriend’ in their house. I stood to defend Tessa, but Dad beat me to it and totally put Mom’s business all out there. My mother had been a cheerleader. But she hadn’t been a cheerleader like Cede or Kurt or even Quinn…no my mom had been a cheerleader like Santana and Brittany had been cheerleaders. She had even gotten pregnant twice when she was in high school trying to keep her quarterback boyfriend happy. They didn’t say what happened to the babies, but I got the feeling that she hadn’t put them up for adoption. Dad had pretty much stepped in and saved her from a really toxic relationship. Personally, I could have lived without ever knowing that stuff, but Dad had been insistent that if I was going to be man enough to make certain decisions, then I needed be man enough to face the consequences and the determination thereof. 

So for two weeks I only saw my Fire at school where she was pretty much safe from my lecherous advances. Or she would have been if Puck hadn’t given her the keys to two of his campus hiding spots. Jake had gotten the keys to the other five that Puck called the less comfortable ones. Monday morning after the incident, she dragged me into the janitor closet closest to the choir room. “So how bad was it?” she asked me after kissing me like she hadn’t seen me in a month. 

“I’m housebound for two weeks. No phone and only school related activities or internet. In the future, I am to let Dad know whenever you’re coming over if no one is home. Granted, he said that was so that he could find a way to keep Mom out of our hair until we’ve had some alone time…but I don’t think that is how he presented it to Mom.” I said with a smile. 

“Yeah, probably not.” She agreed. “I’m sorry you got in trouble.”

“What about you?” 

She shrugged. “Dad was a little mad. But I really only got in trouble for the sneaking part. One week no cell phone…which since you don’t have yours and MeDe and the guys call the house phone…it’s not that bad at all.”

I made a sound of agreement. “I have to say though…the ‘shower’ experiment was a complete and total success.” Tessa gave me a weird look. “What? Don’t try and tell me you didn’t like it. You came so hard you almost passed out.” 

“No, I really, really, really liked it. I can’t wait until we have a chance to do it again. I wish we’d had the chance to try it the other way too.” She told me with a wicked little smile.   
I nodded. Since guys couldn’t actually pee while they came like women could, we’d planned to try my going inside Tessa’s back door the next morning with my morning wood. “We’ll work it out. I’m not gonna rest until we’ve exhausted every single fantasy in your naughty little mind.” I assured her.   
The kiss she laid on me was reward and incentive enough to make sure that I kept that promise. “Is it wrong that I thought it was hot when we got caught? I mean not that it was by your mom…that was a definite eewww! But-“

“If it had been someone cool…someone our age and not related.” I whispered. 

She nodded emphatically. “I got off a bunch of times yesterday to the thought of getting caught by like Reggie, Chase, Jess or one of the guys, like, Steven…that would be so fucking hot.” 

“Especially if they wanted to stay and watch.” I said quietly. We kind of lost our cool there and were late for first period. Before I left her at the door of her first class, Tessa asked me again if I thought that we might be able to join her family for Thanksgiving dinner. I told her that I would ask again. 

I will say that Dad had tried really hard to get mom to let up on the whole ‘not allowed to spend Thanksgiving with Tessa’s family’ deal. He had heard about Danica Jones’ cooking enough that he wanted to have Thanksgiving there too. But Mom was determined to punish Tessa and me. In the end she really only punished herself. Ms. Dani sent Daddy a plate and Ms. Gabby sent him a pecan pie. Ethan and I went over on Friday to hang out and help with the leftovers…and escape our annoying Richards cousins. 

The three weeks between Thanksgiving break and winter break were full of projects and exams and perfecting college applications for me. Tessa and I made time to at least talk and make out every day. But we got locked in a vicious cycle. Because we weren’t able to make love, we were masturbating like crazy. Because we were masturbating like crazy, we came up with more and more increasingly kinky fantasies. Because we were coming up with more and more increasingly kinky fantasies, we wanted to make love. It was really pernicious. I will say that Coach was happy. My sexual frustration was leading us to victory after victory. But the truth of the matter was it was making me unbearable to be around. So much so that when we celebrated my birthday a few days early, Dad got me a hotel room as my gift from him for the weekend Christmas break started. We were scheduled to check in after the game on the twentieth…well after we go and see Mercedes’ movie, and check out on Sunday morning. I couldn’t wait.

Mom looked like she wanted to say something, but Dad stopped her with a snarled. “Oh for God’s sake Heather.” 

Instead she changed the subject. “You were trying to get your applications finalized by the end of Thanksgiving break…did you get them all in?” 

“Yes, Ma’am. Columbia, Rutgers, Princeton, Harvard, NYU, Cornell, and MIT.” I told her with a smile.   
Mom looked at me and didn’t seem happy. “I thought you were going to apply to Penn State. That’s almost Ivy League and it’s not as far.” 

“It’s not. But you and Dad gave me enough to apply to seven schools. Ms. Pillsbury said that with my grades and my extracurriculars, I could probably get into Columbia or MIT, so I switched them out for Penn State and University of Chicago. The rest were already on the list. I mean, I have a four point 0 GPA a twenty three fifteen on the SAT, I’m Captain of a three time state championship football team and I head the STEM club. If I can get into MIT or the Ivy League…shouldn’t I try for them?” I didn’t mention that all the schools I was applying to held the distinction of being within driving distance of Manhattan. Since George and Rebecah were already paying for the house there, Tessa was determined to go to college there so they wouldn’t have to try to pay for her room and board anywhere else. 

“Aidan’s right Heather.” Dad chided her gently. “He is uniquely placed to have a chance for a scholarship to an Ivy League school. Let him try.” 

“Well, did you apply for any fall back schools?” Mom queried. 

“Just Oberlin, CUNY and Fordham…but Becah helped me get a fee waiver for those applications.” I told them honestly. I guess she was happy that there was at least one school close to home on the list, because she finally let the subject rest. I put away the gift cards and stuff that my parents and Ethan had given me and headed to grab Tessa for the party Sugar was throwing for me. I had to admit my life had changed by leaps and bounds in the year since Tessa Altman had moved to Lima Ohio, and I couldn’t have been happier.”

 

Savin’ Me (NickelBack)  
Jake PoV

Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if Noah and his family hadn’t decided to eat at Mom’s diner last New Years’. Looking back at the way I was living, I was destined to be dead by thirty. I mean, I was either gonna sleep with the wrong woman and catch something incurable, or I was going to sleep with the wrong woman and get got by her father or husband or whatever. Talking with Becah, Gabby and Dani had showed me that I treated women like just notches on my belt because I didn’t respect them, or myself, very much. It took more conversations with them and phone calls with Noah, Sam and MeDe to figure out why. I was the son of a single mother. I should respect women more than anybody. Even when Noah had been all slutty, he’d been better about how he saw women that I had been. Because he’d been able to see a clear difference between his mom and his Bubbie and the women that threw themselves at him, he’d felt that some women were worthy of respect, those that carried themselves with respect. I didn’t really believe that those women existed. Not until I got to know the Moms, and MeDe and Tessa. Danica Jones, Rebecah Puckerman…soon to be Altman, and Gabrielle Evans were all women who truly respected themselves and others. Through no effort on their own part, they showed me the difference between women like them and women like my mom. 

My mother had been a pretty good mother. She worked hard to make sure that I always had a roof over my head and clothes and food. I knew that she loved me and that she would fight the world to see me safe…but she was probably entirely too permissive. I was fifteen years old and had never had a curfew. When I was thirteen, I went to Dayton all by myself to see a Ke$ha concert and hooked up with a college broad and spent the rest of the weekend ballin’ her in her dorm room. Mom didn’t say boo. My mom had caught me getting head from a chick behind her restaurant the year before that and she didn’t fuss or run broad off or even indicate that there was anything wrong with a grown ass woman blowing her underaged son behind her place of business. I had no rules at all other than if I wanted spending money; I had to help out around the house and at the diner. Beyond that, my mom was obsessed with finding a husband. I’d always know that if she liked a guy and wanted him, she didn’t care if he was with someone, but it wasn’t until I watched her around Becah that I realized that included if old dude was married. My whole life she had told me that she hadn’t known that Paul was married. 

Watching her around Becah and later Saul and Mills, I realized quickly that she had always lied to me. She’d known Paul was married. She had just been so sure that he would leave Becah for her. She really had looked at Becah as if, as Paul’s wife, she was the home wrecker keeping him from being with his side chick full time. The joke was on her though; even after Becah kicked him to the curb, Paul Puckerman still hadn’t gotten with Mom. And while Saul clearly liked black women…he loved Mills with a depth I didn’t believe was possible until I got sucked into my half-brother’s life and family. 

Mom had finally given up on dating when I hit high school. But before then it was just one busta after another. Half of them didn’t have jobs; the other half had more kids than those Duggar people…and an equal number of baby mommas. They were all just train wrecks. When they weren’t being all sexual with my mother right in front of me, they were trying to be my damn daddy…usually by trying to physically force me to ascribe to their rules. I probably would have respected Mom more if she had kept her sex shit to her room and her men out of my face until she knew if they were gonna stick or not. To be honest I had managed to keep at least a modicum of respect for her until the year before my sophomore year of high school. 

Noah and his boos had gotten Paul arrested. He’d broken into Becah’s house and tried to steal from them, something that he said was a particular habit of our shared pater. Now Paul Puckerman had no discernible source of income. No actual address. He didn’t even own the car he was driving when he popped back up in Lima. So he had gotten no bail and had to stay in jail until his trial. He couldn’t afford a lawyer, and ended up with a public defender. So of course he got convicted. Now this man, who was arrested, judged and incarcerated for crimes so foul…I mean stealing from your daughter and granddaughter…that’s borderline disgusting, that man called my mother. A woman whose missed child support payments numbered in the hundreds and the lack of payment thereof had been an outstanding warrant in said asshole’s name and had added ten years to his sentences for fraud, breaking and entering, attempted grand larceny, identity theft and grand larceny. He had been in jail for a quite a few months before he got around to calling my mother, asking her to come and visit him. 

When she told him that we’d be there, and actually made me go with her to visit my ignoble sperm donor, I thought that she was basically going so she could laugh all up in his face. But instead when we got there, she actually talked to him. That son of a bitch owed her over a hundred grand in back child support and she sat there chatting and reminiscing with him like he was a long lost love. I was so fucking ashamed of her I wanted to get up and leave, but it was like watching a train wreck. I knew the outcome could only suck, but I just couldn’t turn away. Unfortunately the little bit of respect that didn’t die upon realizing that Mom was there just to play catch-up with the old man, died a horribly painful death when he turned to me and laughingly said, “Did your mom ever tell you how we met? She was dancing under the stage name Precious at the Pink Pony down in Atlanta. She was damn good too. Had managed to put herself through college and was saving up to open her own restaurant.” I actually didn’t mind that. I’d figured out long ago Mom had either put herself through college one of two ways…stripping was definitely the better option. 

After she graduated high school, she had finished culinary arts school and gotten a business degree online in four years, so I knew she hadn’t worked a whole lot of jobs to come up with the money. She was always proudly boasting about her not having a boatload of student loans. So I knew that Uncle Sam hadn’t paid for it. It was nice to know she hadn’t found a suga daddy…that just screamed prostitution to me. I zoned back into the conversation just in time to hear, “It may have been the first time we met…but no matter what Chris Rock says, there was definitely sex in the champagne room that night.”

I looked around hoping that none of the cops would be close enough to stop her from busting him in the face one good time. I figured if they were really slow I could get a jab in my damn self. But my mother just giggled like a school girl. Like he hadn’t just totally said something that inappropriate to me about her. Like he hadn’t just demeaned her and everything. She just laughed. “Paul, stop.” 

“What stop? You were so good in that back room, I was happy as hell when you moved up her a couple of months later.” Paul crowed. “We had a lot of fun until you got knocked up.”

In that moment I realized that I was wasting my respect on someone who didn’t respect herself at all. I knew that I would never outright disrespect her because, hey, she was my mother. But the rose tinted glasses got drop kicked from my eyes in that instant. “Hold up. You’re gonna sit here and disrespect her, right in front of me and not expect me to say boo? Hell to the naw.” I growled. “Noah was right about you. As surprising as it is since he really, really, really wants to kill you and leave your ass in a shallow grave somewhere where animals can tear you apart, Saul was right about you. You ain’t worth shit…matter of fact, you ain’t worth killin’.” I told him and looked at my mother. “Can I have the car keys? I’m done here.” She started to apologize for me but I stopped her. “Can I please have the car keys? And don’t apologize for me. I have way too much respect for me, for my brother and my sister…for my, hell I guess stepmother or whatever Becah is…to sit here and talk to this being, like he really is a man.” 

She gave me the keys after that. Paul looked at me. “So I guess you think you’re hot shit like Noah…he’s a fag, son. I wouldn’t spend too much time around him. It might be catching.” 

I rolled my eyes. “I’d rather be the gayest lad in Gaytown than be anything at all like you.” Granted I would somehow have to steal the title from Kurt Hummel, but I didn’t say all that. “Besides in case you didn’t notice he has a girlfriend too. Bisexuality…look it up…it’s a thing.” 

“It’s an abomination against God.” Paul said with a snarl on his face. 

I laughed. “It’s an abomination against God to break your wedding vows to dip your wick in anything that would stand still long enough. It’s an abomination against God to go through your life breaking even the most fundamental of his rules and laws. You are an abomination against God. You’re literally the single most pathetically sinful person anyone has ever seen and you want to stand in a glass house and throw stones. Thank God the only things Noah and I inherited from you were your good looks and the size of your dick.” Thankfully they let me head out to the car after that. When Mom finally came out almost twenty minutes later, she gave me the side eye, but she didn’t bother to scold me so I didn’t say anything. Things at home did not improve for our silence.

But while things at home were really fucked up, shit at school was tight. With Aidan as our quarterback, and my ass at running back and safety we’d won every game so far that season. After my confrontation with Paul, working my way through the entire Cheerio line up…minus Tessa…just didn’t hold the same appeal it had. When Marley and I got closer it seemed like it was going to easy to have a normal relationship with her, just one boy and one girl. But it got all screwed up because Ryder, one of the newest newbies, decided he wanted to be with her. Then I found out that another of the new chicks, Kitty, was messing with her head trying to convince Marley that she needed to lose weight or end up as large as her mother. Now, that was impossible considering that Marley looked like she didn’t get enough to eat because her mom stole it all…not that she ever would. Mrs. Rose might have had a weight problem, but she was a great mom. 

Now, Ryder I could handle myself, but Kitty…she was a chick. I couldn’t lay hands on a woman, even if she needed to be punished severely. But fortunately I knew some people to handle her ass. “Yo, Sis…got a minute?” I grabbed Tessa in the hall the morning after I’d found out Kitty’s dumbass plan. “I need you to check that Kitty chick.” 

Tessa looked at me like I’d spoken a foreign language. Thankfully Aidan knew what I meant. “What did Kitty do that means she needs to get straightened out?” 

I laid out the whole fucked up situation for them and Tee got pissed. “Alright. You leave that Kitty bitch to me. Her ass will be out of uniform by the end of the day and wishing she could transfer to Dalton by the end of the week.” She pulled out her phone and started texting someone. I wasn’t sure who, but if I’d liked Kitty better I’d have said I hoped it was Cede not Tana. But I didn’t like her at all so unleashing Satan on her was cool with me. “But you need to talk to Marley and help her see the truth of what was going on. Take Unique with you. She isn’t MeDe, but there is something about her that tells me she can help when you shove your size ten into your mouth.”

I agreed and turned to leave when Aidan stopped me. “Jake, I know something is going on with you and Ryder, but you’re gonna need to squash that. You two are teammates twice over now. Get to know him. The two of you might even find some common ground.” 

I hate it when he is right. Not only did Ryder and I kill our duet cause we sounded fucking awesome together, but come to find out we were both hiding shit behind our ‘popular jock’ personas. I was having issues with being biracial in intolerant ass McKinley High and Ryder was hiding his reading problems. He was having trouble in all his classes because he wouldn’t just confess that his ass had trouble reading. I dragged him to Ms. Pillsbury and she led him through some testing and then got him hooked up with the same program Cede had found for Sam. Then that afternoon after football practice, I introduced him to Sam-I-Am over FaceTime and Sam was able to explain to him that having dyslexia didn’t have to be a limiting thing. He just needed to figure out how to work with and around it to excel. 

Tessa never confessed to anything, on the way to football practice, I’d seen Kitty in the hall completely out of uniform. She’d been stripped to her bra and thong and she looked like the scene from Nip/Tuck where the doctor would draw on the woman with the black marker showing her all he was gonna change. Apparently Ms. Wilde wore Spanks under her Cheerio uniform, because she had a major muffin top, her legs and ass had dimples everywhere and she needed more definition in her arms. She was lucky the halls were pretty empty. Something told me that the idea had been Santana’s but the time of execution had been Cede. Tana would have had her out right before the last bell rang…not after the halls had pretty much cleared. When the blonde disappeared down the hall, Tessa and RJC came strolling out the locker room with sharpies high fiving and looking really happy with themselves.

Unique had proven Tessa right too. I wasn’t privy to the conversation but Marley was back to herself. Unfortunately, it also made her realize that she wasn’t really ready for a serious relationship yet. She asked for time to get to know me and get to know herself better. I couldn’t argue with that. She was right. So instead of getting a new girlfriend, I ended up with three really good friends, because Unique had become part of the Marley friendship package. Plus, there really weren’t that many black guys at McKinley…even if he did spend more time as a chick than a dude. Wade/Unique was still the best of the few.

Despite all the drama, we were still ready for Sectionals. The Warblers had stolen the NHSSCA trophy from our trophy case, but Coach Sylvester and Shelby had lo-jacked that bad boy. Shelby was like a mafia don. She made one call, said like ten words, and boom some skinny ass white boy Sebastian was bringing us our trophy back and the Warblers were disqualified from the competition. Granted, we didn’t know that until the judges read out the places, but still. 

Our performance was on point. The theme was ‘Foreigner’. Shelby had decided that we’d look at each of the theme’s possible interpretations. Songs by foreign performers or groups, songs by the rock group Foreigner, or songs in foreign languages. Our first song was the foreign language song. Tessa and Kim shared the lead on ‘99 Luft Balloons’ in German. We followed that with RJC and Unique sharing the lead in Foreigner’s ‘I Want to Know What Love Is’. Then we finished off with Joe, Ryder, Steven and myself leading ‘Story of My Life’ from One Direction. It was a risk doing such a new song, but it paid off in dividends. Not to mention that our dancing was so off the chain. I mean, me, Regina, Chase and Jessica had taken up where Mike and Brittany had left off and we integrated more gymnastics and hip hop moves too. The second place winners, The Unitards did George Michaels’ ‘Careless Whisper’, then Mr. Mister’s ‘Broken Wings’ and finished up with Depeche Mode’s ‘Never Let Me Down Again’. Personally it was way too much eighties British music for me but I guess the judges felt that way too. They did come in second. Third place went to the Rosedale Mennonites who’d regaled us with the ‘Over the River & Through the Woods and She’ll be Coming ‘Round the Mountain’, then finished off with Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah…which always made me think of Shrek. The Warblers had given the judges ‘Whistle’ by Flo Rida…who was neither foreign nor speaking in a foreign language…but hey only one of the three songs had to fit the bill and they managed that with their One Direction cover of ‘Live While You’re Young’. They had finished off with ‘We Weren’t Born To Follow’, a song Ryder had to tell me was from Bon Jovi. Sometimes I forget he started off as a rocker not a bad actor. 

The seniors were hella happy that we’d won. They were determined to take us all to Nationals again, even if the best voices were now among the juniors and sophomores. In reality, I think they were kind of relieved. They got to concentrate on their SATs, ACTs, and classes a lot more than they would have if they were the featured voices. We got to do a celebration song. The judges had heard about our rendition last year of a song that had broken hugely across the global music landscape since then, so we did Macklemore’s ‘Same Love’, per their request. Unique and Tessa took the chorus while Steven and I handled the rap. It was different than last year’s, but no less great…if I do say so myself. It was also bittersweet for those of us who were missing our older crew from the year before. 

The time between sectionals and the November break flew by. The alumni New Directions all called or skyped in to congratulate us and Shelby. When they came home for Thanksgiving they took the time to reconnect with each other, but they also made time to touch bases with the younger crew. I introduced my siblings to Marley and she and Unique picked Mercedes brain for an hour about Jill Scott and recording and how it had felt to hear herself on the radio…which was totally cool by the way. Noah and Sam told me and Ryder, who’d popped up just to actually meet Sam, all about performing on a stage and singing with Rascal Flatts, whose music they’d had to introduce me to, ‘cause I was not a country kind of guy. 

It hadn’t even been a full year since my brother noticed me and made me tell him who I was and yet everything in my whole world was different. Some good different, some bad different, some just plain different…but I was happy as hell. I finally really knew who the hell I was and it felt fucking awesome.

 

It’s My Life (Bon Jovi)  
Mercedes PoV

Thanksgiving break was a blast. We got to see a lot of our friends. I hated to slap Finn, but someone had to. Lauren was taking the high road and if we let shit lie until Christmas, Santana had a lot worse planned for him. Besides, someone needed to tell him that an apology was just the beginning of remorse. No one has ever learned anything without some type of consequences. The food and family were, as always, stellar. The Black Friday sales were killer. I got a new purse and Christmas gifts for Dad, the siblings, all eight of them and my guys. As we were passing a jewelry store, I stopped. “Can a girl get a guy an engagement ring? What does that even look like?” 

Mills and Mom exchanged a look. “Baby, you can do whatever makes you happy.” Momma told me with a big smile. “You, Sam and Noah have made it this far by doing what was right for you and not what the world around you wanted or expected.”

“As for what it looks like? Just do you. Look around and see if there is anything that jumps out at you. Anything that screams Noah or Sam.” Mills agreed. She got a text from Uncle Saulie and sighed. “Saul wants me to meet him in Macy’s. He says he has a surprise for me.” 

Momma laughed and told her to go. “Might as well take advantage of the clueless guilt he’s not sure why he is feeling. I saw an amazing black and white plaid, suede trimmed, cashmere Ralph Lauren poncho at Macys…if you get him to buy him that, I want you to let me borrow it.”

Mills laughed and looked at my mom’s much more expansive bosom then down at her own. “Yeah. I’ll just convince him that he owes you an apology too and get it for you in your size.” She finally said. “What about you Cede…anything good that you want?”

I chuckled, “There was a gorgeous Dooney and Bourke fuchsia shopper that I dream of owning…but if he gets it for me now, tell him to wrap it up for my Christmas gift.” I said with a big innocent smile. I really did want that bag, but I’d have felt horrible if they gave me a two hundred thirty dollar purse for mostly feigned outrage. The guys had all slept in and once they finally woke up, they went to work readying Gabby’s nursery. Daddy had already had a storage room in the basement finished off so that the baby could have a room down there with Gabby, rather than having to move everyone around and putting Sander and Gabs upstairs and Stevie and Stacey down in the basement. That weekend Kev, Dev, Puck, Sam and Stevie were painting and putting together the some of the smaller things the Dads hadn’t had time to get to. 

We’d grabbed a few things for the room while we were out shopping, and by a few things I mean everything we could think of that we saw and thought was cute. Mom and Gabby were going to go in together to get a Nanny for after Gabby’s maternity leave was over. As soon as we got into the house the boys dragged us down to see the room. They had done the base color in Sherwin Williams Classic Sand, a warm light brown. The baseboards and simple crown molding had been painted a bright, happy, white. Then, in the corner of the room nearest the crib, they had used deep browns to create really realistic looking tree with big branches that became a border on the room’s walls. One the wall behind the crib, hanging from the branches, were cute little vines with baby green leaves. Sam had taken his time and meticulously drawn and painted three little monkeys two of whom he’d given little hair bows on their ears…one purple and one teal. After a nice long shower to get all the paint off Sam and Puck and to let the water drown out the sounds of our pleasure, we chilled out with the family playing games and just enjoying our time together. 

Saturday was spent in more bonding. Quinn had Beth and the rest of that portion of the family and they were getting to know James’ family. She shot me a picture of Beth and James’ mom that was totally adorable. Our family was pretty much divided into groups. A lot of the women were helping Becah, Pattie and Mills with wedding planning. While they were doing that, I was searching online for the rings I wanted to give to Sam and Noah for Christmas. Everyone was also talking with Gabby about how she was feeling and if she had pretty much everything she needed. Sam spent as much of his time home as possible with her. He hated the fact that he would miss the birth so much, Saul and the Dads had come up with a way to make it happen. Puck, Sam and I had to be back in classes Monday, but they had gone in together and gotten the three of us some open date tickets to get back as soon as she went into labor. She wasn’t due until the twelfth, which was perfect timing since that was right in the middle of our study days and we could be back before finals. 

At least that was the plan. We flew out on schedule on Sunday afternoon with Saul, Mills, Bubbie Ruth and Klaine and got back to our house in the early evening. Santana, Artie and Brittany had taken the time to clean up after the Lopez, Abrams and Pierce clans and Santana’s aunts had left us dinner before they pulled out. We ate dinner, clowned around and watched a movie with Ryan and Seth, who had yet to leave to return to Princeton. He usually didn’t pull out until Monday morning, getting back to his campus right on time for his first class. None of us blamed him or minded. The boy was funny and when you got him and Sam riffing off each other it was seriously dangerous… a total pee yourself level of hilarity.   
Monday morning, I had to forgo my usual time in our home gym…oh such a tragedy…I did so hate to not work out. I smirked at the thought as I got dressed and did my hair and makeup so that I would be ready for the interview that I had that morning. Part of being in a movie and releasing songs on a soundtrack was promoting the work. I had gotten really lucky in that Jill was willing to handle all the face to face stuff leaving me free to continue my studies. I just needed to wake up at God awful o’clock to look good enough for a skyped in interview with a few dozen radio shows. The first one was set up to make me comfortable and help me get past my nerves. It was supposed to be the easiest one. 

That Monday morning I was scheduled to speak with the Steve Harvey Morning Show. I was significantly less nervous about it since I knew him…sort of. At seven fifteen I’d been waiting on skype for a little over half an hour, blowing kisses at the webcam whenever they threw out a teaser for the coming interview. Finally the time had arrived. I turned down my radio and readied myself. 

I’d elected to dress very well for the day, in a pair of skinny jeans and a great, bold colored, colorblocked vee-necked tunic sweater. I was sitting at my desk in the study with the wall of bookshelves behind me. I chose that location for a couple of reasons. It kept people pretty well out of our business; they couldn’t see much of our house or personalities in there. With just bookshelves behind me, there was no window for them to catch a peek out of and try to figure out where I was, where we lived. There was also the fact that my device could stay on its charging platform the whole time and in the study the WiFi signal was at its strongest. 

Mr. Harvey’s producer Shirley Strawberry introduced us and Jill, in the studio, and me on Skype talked about the soundtrack and when the movie would be coming out. We delved into the movie’s plot and what Jill and I loved about our characters and how race wasn’t really an issue in the movie... Vivian and Lillian could just as easily have been white and little about the plot line would have been changed. We talked about working with each other and singing together. I told them how kind Malik Yoba had been. Shirley and Carla started teasing Jill and I about working with a hotty like Malik. I laughed and pointed out that Mr. Yoba was literally older than my dad and that my mother had dibs on that crush long before I was born. 

“Alright, now Mercedes Jones…I know you from somewhere…where do I know you from?” Steve said once we’d handled business. 

Nephew Tommy laughed. “Come on Unc. That’s the little girl we met at James’ graduation, his girlfriend’s soul sister. They invited us to that big cookout.” He led. “The one where that little white kid sounded like he had swallowed Al Green…no, Marjorie said he was the reincarnation of Teddy Pendergrass. Poor man died and came back and he still couldn’t get out of the wheelchair.”

I giggled. Daddy had said something similar the first time he heard Artie sing. “Mr. Harvey, Your nephew is really a great guy. He treats Quinn very well. In fact, we just saw James yesterday. He was with Quinn when she said goodbye before they headed back to Yale. And he came to New York to bring Que so she and her roommate Taylor could help us with a performance on Halloween.” 

“Oh yeah, you’re the one with the two dentists for parents. I remember now. You’ve got them big, pretty teeth.” Steve nodded. 

“So glad he said Teeth.” Shirley chuckled. 

Steve continued undaunted. “And thank you. James really is growing into a fine young man. I’d take some credit but my sister would probably slap me for doing so.”

Tommy smiled but decided to tease me and the audience. “You still with those two white boys? According to the ladies in the family both of your men are two different types of FIONE.” His alter ego, Eugene, said flamboyantly. 

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, Sam, Noah and I are still together. We have a song on the SongBird soundtrack as well…our group name is KAMA. Our debut album will be out next spring.” I said smoothly. “And FINE doesn’t even begin to describe my men.”

“That’s cool.” Carla said before asking about which song and everything. When I answered, ‘The Fighter’, she about exploded, gushing all over the air waves. “I love that song. It’s like an R&B/Rock/Alternative fusion. Never heard anything like it before but it was awesome.”

“I’m glad you like it. We want our style to be different and yet stay true to who we are as a thruple, as our friends call us, and as individuals. When our album drops, you’ll really hear the depth and breadth of our divergent influences and the blending of all of them as well.”

“I’ve heard a few of those tracks and let me tell you. I cannot wait to buy it.” Jill said her voice honest and her smile broad and sincere. “People, the music industry is about to be set on its ear by those three.”   
Carla signaled that it was time to wrap up, so Steve asked us what was next. I decided to be cheeky. 

“Well, I’ve got class in about an hour. Album or no I’ve got a degree to earn.”

“Yeah, and don’t let them grades drop either. If you manage to handle all of this and still come out this semester with a three five or higher Mike has to do an event for Blues Babe Foundation next year.” Jill chided.

We all shared a laugh and out interview ended on a great note. Not five minutes later Jill called me to remind me that I would need to be skype accessible at two o’clock for an interview with Big Tigger in Atlanta and she would email me the needed information. I headed out making it to class just on time. I noticed that there were several people checking for me…looking at me strangely, but I brushed it off. Probably I should have paid more attention. By the time I left my English class, I had accomplished all I needed to for that day. I had a group of four other people and Blaine that would comprise my study group for the class. I did the same in my psych class, including Blaine again because, while we didn’t have the class together we had the same teacher and same syllabus, just on different days and times then I rushed to Juilliard so that I could find an empty practice room to use for my second radio interview of the day.

Big Tigger was all about the music. He’d listened to every track of the soundtrack and he and Jill had a great rapport with each other. So the interview was easy and smooth until he threw out, “So, it’s all over the blogisphere and the twitterverse that you’re a freshman at Columbia…Ivy League…Nice. So what is it like trying to juggle so much stuff?”

“Oh wow. Didn’t know it was out there… I mean what school I was attending. I’m making it work. My boyfriends and I, all three of us are doing cross registration, meaning that we take classes at both Columbia and Juilliard. Its work, but nothing worth having is ever easy, right? I’m sure there are plenty of people in this country who are working two or three jobs to hold stuff down. I don’t think we have it that hard. You just do what you have to do to make your dreams come true.” I answered in a little ramble. He caught me off guard with that little bit of information I’d hoped wouldn’t come out for a while longer. 

“That is a perfectly politically correct answer. Now, what’s the real answer?” Tigger challenged.

I laughed merrily. “My friends call me Hermione Granger. Next week we don’t have any classes because finals start Friday…I already have the schedule for myself, my boyfriends and our housemates done so that we can all study in groups without tripping all over each other.” 

“Oh wow…you really are anal retentive aren’t you…that’s so cute.” he drawled. “And do your boyfriends and housemates have to follow your schedule or you go ham on them?”

“Naw. They are all grown folks…or at least technically. They can easily decide what works for them.” I said honestly.

With that settled, Tigger asked me a few more things about the movie, the soundtrack and KAMA’s album before he smirked. “Alright, now let’s get down to the nitty gritty. Lil Miss Thang, I know that you didn’t think you were gonna get away with dropping ‘my boyfriends’ this and ‘my boyfriends’ that and not tell us something, anything, everything…” 

I sighed and gave a quick summary of my guys, our love and our relationship. “We’ll celebrate our second anniversary together in April.” I finished. 

“Wow. That’s wonderful. How do youse guys parents feel about your polyamorous relationship?” he asked sounding less like a DJ and more like a reporter. 

“Our actual parents are very supportive. The only one who has had anything negative to say at all is my boo’s biological and he can’t judge because he didn’t raise.” I told him, keeping things one hundred.   
Tigger chuckled. “I love that. He did help raise his child so he can’t say anything about his choices. Ya hear that all y’all deadbeat parents? If you ain’t put in, you need to stop trying to cast shade or get anything out. But for real, your black parents are cool with you being with two guys? Black parents are usually really religious.”

I nodded. “My dad is a deacon in our church. But the truth is that Daddy has always been convinced that if it isn’t explicitly forbidden by God then it isn’t a sin. And by that I’m pretty much talking about the Ten Commandments or the words attributed to Christ as signified by the red ink in traditional bibles. A lot of what many Christians yell and scream about are actually negated by things Christ said. Homosexuality is preached about mainly in the old testament and in two letters from a man who was a prophet…but he was just a man. We have no way of knowing if that was really from God or if it was just that man’s view on things. Then there is the fact that most latter biblical translations don’t go back to the original text. They are translations of the Kings James version. King James was a rampant misogynist and, a lot of historians think, he was a repressed homosexual himself. There is no hate more pervasive and insidious than hate motivated by self-hate. I say all that to say we don’t know what those original translators added just to please their king. They weren’t willing to lie on Jesus or God but they could easily slip things in on the Letters to the Romans or Corinthians from Paul. I personally believe that God is Love. Preaching hate in his name is wrong and sinful in and of itself. Sorry to get all religious and soap boxy.” 

Tigger seemed unconcerned. “Don’t bother me at all. Kind of blows me that you’re talking like that and you’re only a first semester freshman. Damn girl, you smart.” He teased. “So when you were telling us about how you guys got together, you mentioned that you were bullied…” 

“I was a thick black girl with extremely ethnic and urban taste in music, dress, and most of everything else in Middle America during a time when race relations are getting worse and worse. On top of that I was best friends with the school’s out and proud gay boy and we were both singing all the time and joined the school’s show choir. I had literally gotten slushied so many times I could tell you the different textures associated with the different flavors.”

“I’d have been kicked out of school for beating the breaks off the first fool to throw some freaking ice in my damn face.” Tigger growled. “And I really couldn’t have been your Daddy…I’d have caught a case.” 

I laughed. “Daddy was always the easiest to talk down. He wanted me to learn to fight for myself in a way that held true to who I was and my Christianity. My mother on the other hand…she was all about wrecking those fools’ worlds. She is a dentist…that means she was pretty much trained to torture people.” I joked. “But in the end, my way worked best. By the time I was a senior, I was the NHSSCA National female soloist of the year, on the National Show Choir of the year, a National Championship winning cheerleader…I helped force our school to put an end to the slushying. Granted, that was mostly by proving to my fellow cheerleaders that just because I tried to be a good Christian, that didn’t mean I couldn’t be more ruthless, more cunning and more evil than all of them. Once they spread that word to their boyfriends…stuff started to change. It also helped that the biggest force of bullying had to change his ways if he wanted to graduate on time. Things also changed because when my guys, both of whom were really, really popular, started dating me and seemed so happy and uncaring about what others thought of them, that a few of the guys who had crushes on less popular girls...they went for it. We also left behind a crew of people who will continue to press for change.”

“You know, you just described the biggest thing folks need to remember about bullies. If you show them that they are weaker than you…than they think you are…they are gonna back down. Hopefully your story can be a force for more global change in bullying. Way too many kids are dying because they are a little bit different.” Tigger said grinning. He turned to Jill and made her tell him more about her Blues Babe Foundation and then we wrapped up. 

The rest of that first week of December went much the same way. Most of the time Jill was on the show as well, in most cases she was in the studio while I was on the phone; but for the New York shows we flipped the script. Well not the Elvis Duran show, we both skyped in on that one. But for the most part the week went, up with the chickens to do an interview with a nationally syndicated morning show…or two; then in the afternoons we were on the phone with the regional shows, Tigger represented the south. Tuesday I called into the Frank Ski Show in DC. Wednesday I skyped with Tiffany on KUBE in Seattle. Thursday was relegated to the San Francisco Bay area and I talked with Dreena Gonzalez on WiLD 94.9. Friday we closed out the week in Chicago with UB Rodriguez. 

As for the morning shows…they were the really interesting. After Steve Harvey on Monday, Tuesday was both a call in to Sway’s XM radio show at eight and Sam, Noah and I were in studio at nine with the Power 105.1’s Breakfast Club. Charlamagne and Puck should never be allowed to be in the same place at the same time. Once we were done talking up the movie and the soundtrack those two went nuts. They had so much fun clowning each other you’d have thought they were long lost bros. Then again with the way Paul Puckerman got around…who is to say? They had Angela, DJ ENVEY Sam and I rolling so hard my chest hurt by the time we left. Wednesday was both Ryan Seacrest and The Elvis Duran morning shows, and then Thursday I was on the phone with The Tom Joyner Morning Show first and then the Rickey Smiley Morning Show before I had to rush to make my first class. Friday morning was no joke. It was a New York Show, so Sam, Puck and I went to do it in person. We had to get dressed for real since the show we were on was simulcast on Sirius XM and as a webshow. 

The Howard Stern show was huge. I never expected to be invited there. He was cool though, not like you’d expect a shock jock to behave. I will say that after we did the movie and soundtrack spiel, he asked more deeply probing questions than all of the previous interviewers combined. “So, Mercedes, you talked about getting bullied earlier this week. Not gonna make you rehash what it was like.” Instead he played my answer to Tigger’s question. “What I want to know is that now that you’re blowing up…what would you really like to say to those people who bullied you while you took the higher ground?” was his opening shot. 

I laughed. “You know, I’d like to say that I am so wonderful that I never look back and still feel anger or don’t feel vindicated by how well my life seems to be going…” 

“Seems to be going, Girl, you’re attending an Ivy League college. you’re in a movie the critics love, have the current number one single in both the US and UK for the last two weeks, you’ve got not one but two hot boyfriends…I think you can say your life is officially going well.” Bronk said, his voice slightly tinged with a southern accent. 

I couldn’t help but smile. “Ok, feel vindicated by how well my life is going…but I kind of want to write a song like Kool Mo Dee’s ‘How Ya Like Me Now’ or Jessie J’s ‘Who’s Laughing Now’.”

We all got a chuckle from that. Robin howled at the throw back to the early eighties rap but Howard spring-boarded that into asking me about my feelings about Jessie J’s ability to write music and how I liked her singing. Of which, I couldn’t respond with enough high praise and love. Howard seemed happy with that answer and so he moved on to what seemed to be his favorite subject. “Ok…so how do things work between the three of you sexually?”   
“Damn well.” Was Sam’s response. 

But of course not one person on the show was satisfied with that answer. Even George Takei wanted to know more. “Really, are Sam and Puck always just with you, Mercedes, or are they sometimes together?”  
Puck decided to take control of the interview from there. He knew that Sam and I would have used euphemisms and shaded terms that would never satisfy our host of interviewers. “We bone...all three of us together. We bone when it’s just two of us and we need to bone. We make love together and separately. We’re not a triangle…we’re a pyramid.” He told them simply. 

Robin had her own question for us. “So you three can answer an argument George and I have been having for years. Who gives the best fellatio?” 

Puck and Sam had a little nonverbal discussion before Sam answered, “overall, Mercedes…she has this thing she can do with her tongue that neither Puck nor I can figure out how to replicate.” 

“Ha. In your face Takei.” Robin crowed. I thought that seemed a little out of character for her, but vindication can make you behave badly. “And, just for my own prurient interest…between you and Puck?”

Puck answered that one. “Look at those lips. I cannot compete. I’m not saying I don’t give incredible head…I’m a sex shark I’m damn good at all things boning and boning adjacent, but just keepin’ it real…Sam Evans’ mouth is a thing of head giving beauty.” 

Howard Stern looked at his producer and mouthed ‘Boning Adjacent?’. “What the hell is boning adjacent?” he finally asked Puck. 

“All the stuff that gets you off other than actual sex. I mean look at it like this…you're with a real chick, a girl with self-respect who is not gonna let you hit it and quit it…like Cede here. Or one of the religiou-sos who are determined to wait for marriage…like a piece of paper really means anything. I mean divorce is everywhere and there isn’t a state in the union that’s gonna let the three of us get married, but that’s okay cause we’re already married in Yeshiva’s sight. Anyway, back to my point. In either of those situations sex is off the table, right?” 

“Right.” Robin drawled as she looked at the camera like Puck was weird. 

“Well there is still plenty of fun shit you can do that isn’t actually sexing… like making out or getting head or eating at the Y or watching each other rub one out. That way you can learn each other before you actually bone. Or if she’d rigid about the whole no boning during Aunt Flo’s visit…you can still get off.”

“I’ve gotta use that...Boning Adjacent.” Howard laughed as the rest of the crew looked baffled by the simplicity of Puck logic and felt stupid at having to have it explained. “So you’d respect a chick who wanted to wait for Marriage?”

“Hell yeah.” Puck shot back. “It don’t matter why a chick says no…if you don’t respect what she says then your ass needs to be in jail. I’m serious as hell about that. Year before last some dude thought that Mercedes was up for grabs and he wouldn’t listen when she said A…she was taken and B…she didn’t want his big old Grimace looking ass even if she wasn’t.” He shook his head, “Me and Sam weren’t having none of that. We beat the breaks off old dude and now his ass is doing like six years for attempted sexual assault. Now we’re at Columbia and you know how those entitled rich boy are. We keep an eye out for our girl even when she don’t know we’re checkin’ for that shit.”

Robin nodded. “I know there are plenty women out there who will say that you guys aren’t her father…but you know what, with the current rape cultures on way too many college campuses…I say good for you.”  
Howard however wanted more details. “Now, I’m not trying to be sizeist or racist or anything, but I’m sure that you’re gonna get the questions…so I want my listeners to be able to say they heard it first. Mercedes is not what Hollywood and the fashion industry currently say is sexy. You’re what Mercedes a size eighteen?”

“Sixteen…fourteen if it is cut well. Eighteen if the sizes run small.” I said honestly.

“So a size sixteen, she is African American and she has very well I guess African features. A wide nose, deep brown eyes. Full…very very full lips.” A naughty impulse made me drag my tongue sexily over my lips then pucker up and blow him a kiss. He started to stutter a little.

Robin scoffed. “Get to your point Howard.” 

“I’m sorry…but we were talking about head and the thing she does with her tongue…got a little distracted there. Anyway. Explain to the listener why two very fit, muscular, I’m sure that everyone will agree that you’re attractive white guys are with her.”

Sam rolled his eyes. But Puck beat him to the punch with his answer. “Man you just said it yourself. Our woman is sexy as hell. Stick figures may do it for some guys. Heck, one of our friends prefers his girls tall and rail thin or shorter and barely curvy. But check Mercedes out, I’m not trying to be crass…though both of my boos will tell you that it pretty much my natural state… Cede’s boobs are huge, and her ass matches. She might have a thicker waist, but it dips in just right for holding her hips when she’s riding the D or when we’re hittin’ it from behind. Her thighs are thick and soft and feel fantastic wrapped around my head or hips. Plus she does yoga every day so she is all kinds of flexible and has a lot of stamina…if that isn’t the definition of sexy for a woman then what the hell is?”

“Both Puck and I prefer our woman be exactly as God made her.” Sam continued. “She is beautiful inside and out. She is sexier than any woman I’ve ever seen before and that includes the crush I had on her mom the first time I saw her.” 

“You had a crush on my Mom?” I gasped. 

Sam blushed so red it was hilarious. “Yeah just a little one though. And maybe on your Aunt Ricki…But in my defense, those were just little ‘Wow, she is so pretty, I see where Mercy gets her gorgeous eyes or smile from’ crushes.” 

“Sorry Sam, I’m calling bullshit. Those were just little ‘Wow she’s so pretty I see where Cedes gets her sexy tits or bodacious ass from’ crushes.” Puck chimed back in. “Seriously guys if you’re in the Midwest and you have the chance to get to know any of the women shaped like Cede with the last name Jones…take the chance. Her aunts and cousins are hilarious. In fact, even if you don’t go for that particular type, I personally think you’re crazy but to each their own, still take the time to get to know a curvy girl they tend to be funnier and less high maintenance and just cool chicks.” 

“There is a lot to be said for cool chicks.” Howard laughed. 

Puck chuckled. “Cool chicks and smart chicks. Cede is both. Cool is great for the woman when you’re out and about…smart is great cause they can make your life better in and out of bed.” 

“Hold up…explain that for us.” Howard pressed. 

I hid my face before he could even start. I knew that he was going to go there. We’d even talked about how to handle the Howard Stern interview expressly. It was the only one that Jill wasn’t doing with us at all and it was also the one that we knew would be Puck’s favorite and his time to shine. We’d talked about it with Christian and Deborah and everyone agreed that we should just let Puck be Puck. It would be the best way to make Howard happy with the interview. That didn’t change the fact that this was probably about to be embarrassing. Complimentary, but embarrassing. 

“Well first of all without her help there is no way that me and Sam would have gotten into an Ivy League school. She has a great ability to make even boring subjects like history and English come alive. Secondly, Cede reads. She reads tons of stuff including erotica and other sexy shit. That makes her inventive as hell in bed. She comes up with the hottest shit…Hell; she helped me and Sam figure out the mechanics of boning each other. Oh my god, the first time Sam boned me…Mercedes did all the prep work, I was ready to climb the wall before he even got the condom on that shit was so good.” He reached over and ran a finger down my neck. “She might not be perfect, but she is totally perfect for me and Sam.” 

“That is so cool.” Howard nodded. “I mean people come in and always talk about the romantic aspects of their relationships and we can tell that isn’t gonna last because eventually they are gonna realize that chicks fart too and guys never remember to put down the toilet seat… or they come in and all they see is the sex, and that won’t last either because you can’t just fuck every single moment of every single day. But you three you seem to realize that you’re each real people with faults and issues and you accept each other’s foibles. Hell, you enjoy them. That’s cool. I hope that you’re really successful cause I want to have you three back here again.” He said when his producer started to force him to wrap up. 

The next two weeks Jill and Malik were handling all of the press so I could focus on prepping and finals. The whole house was working our asses off trying to maintain our scholarships and keep our GPAs high enough that the parents didn’t decide that we were doing too much side shit. So it wasn’t surprising that we all scheduled study groups for all our classes. When I was making up the schedule templates, I’d given us each a different area to work in. Sam had the family room on our side. Artie the family room on theirs. Britts had the dance rehearsal room in their side in the mornings, and Kurt had it in the afternoons. Blaine’s groups, when he wasn’t in with mine, were in Bartana’s dining room while mine were in ours. Santana had hers in their study while Puck kept his crew to ours. Somewhere amid all the studying that we had to do, I had to schedule time for Kurt, Bubbie and I to meet with Anika, to pick out an outfit for the SongBird Premiere which was happening right in the middle of Finals week. While I hated to wait until the last minute the only real time I could devote to shopping was the Saturday after my first day of finals. Before I realized it though, the time for studying was over.

Sam’s finals schedule was the most spread out. He and Puck had their Humanities final Friday morning and then he had one Monday, two Tuesday morning and followed that with his Juilliard performance finals on Thursday afternoon. Puck had what seemed like the easiest setup. Two Columbia finals Friday, two more on Monday and then both his Juilliard finals on Thursday. Mine schedule, however, was killer. I had two exams Friday morning at Columbia, then I had to race to Juilliard for my vocal performance final. Monday morning I had my other Juilliard final, rhythm and performance, then it was back to Columbia’s campus for Blaine and I to share a huge testing room while all of Dr. Metcalf Psychology one hundred level students took our final. My last Columbia final, thankfully finished that same evening. I had the late six o’clock final for my statistics class but since that meant that I’d have all day Tuesday to prepare for the red carpet that night, I was not complaining at all. 

But of course…God does love to laugh at all our planning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Your Mission...if you chose to accept it...
> 
> Be one of the 13-14 reviews I'm hoping to receive for this chapter.  
> Tell me all that you loved or hated about the chapter  
> Tell me what you want to see happen next.
> 
> Go to the Yahoo Group (Illy&Anni)and look at the dress choices for Mercedes to wear at the SongBird Premiere.  
> VOTE for your favorite. Identical polls are up at both the group and in my profile.
> 
> Rest and relax, secure in the knowledge that you've made a fanfic author very, very happy...and Happy Writers write faster and better.
> 
> TTFN,  
> Anni


	8. Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy), Dedicated to Fashion & Golden

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Even with the finale, they couldn’t give us a real good ending for Mercedes, Rachel got married and a Tony…but they alluded to Mercy’s world tour, but they said nothing about a Grammy or a love interest for Cedes. RIB and his writers can still each collectively and individually kiss my big black ass. SamCedes is EndGame. If they can’t see that then they need new, not stupid, eyes.

Chapter 8  
Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)( John Lennon)  
Sam PoV

I had just walked in the door after I’d finished my first official college final exam when my cell phone rang. Checking the screen, I was a little surprised to see that it was George. He rarely ever called my phone. Usually, if he had something he wanted to tell me, he would catch me on the weekly family skype session. “Hey George, what’s up?”

“Sam, you done for the day?” He asked, his voice hurried and a little distracted?

“Yeah, I just walked in the door.” I told him. 

I could hear him nodding. “Good…Good. Look…run upstairs and pack you, Noah and Mercedes up for a weekend home. The two of you can meet her at Juilliard after her final head straight to the airport. You need to be there by five. The Tickets are waiting on you.” 

“Momma’s had the baby?” I shouted excitedly. 

“Not yet, but she’s is in labor and we’re on our way to the hospital now.” He told me and I could hear the grin in his voice. “If you guys can get to the airport and Bubbie’s not there, let us know when you take off, we’ll have someone there to pick you up and bring you straight to the hospital. She’s gonna try to get there before you and fly up with you that way she can rent a car and just drive everyone up.” 

“Okay. Cool.” I was grinning to beat the band. I raced up all three flights of stairs and started packing. I did Mercedes stuff first. Hopefully she wouldn’t mind that I only packed her laciest bits of nothing underwear for the weekend. I mean, we’d be celebrating so I figure that she’ll want to have the pretties on her pretty. I pulled out my favorite pair of her sexy skinny jeans and a pair of her dark wash jeggings. I was so grateful that her closet was so well organized. I was able to find a tunic top to go with the jeggings and a hot as hell sweater that would not only go with the jeans, but it had a scoop neck and would hug her titties like crazy. The thing was that since the Howard Stern interview, it’s almost like Puck and I had sex on the mind all the time. I don’t know what it was, but talking on the radio about our sex lives had been really, really hot. Besides, it wasn’t like Puck and I weren’t constantly trying to make the rest of the world see the hotness that is Mercedes Jones even well before the whole shock jock moment. But ever since watching her looking so confident and sexy as she teased him, we’ve been teasing her more and more. There is something amazingly sexy about a woman who is fully secure in herself that is hot like fire. 

After thinking for a moment, I figured I’d better pack her a church dress just in case we had the time and energy to make it on Sunday morning. I quickly found a funky bright and darker blue stripped top with a draped neckline and its matching skirt. It seemed like a good choice since it had long sleeves and a high-ish collar. Plus it didn’t look like it would wrinkle much even if it spent the whole weekend in the suitcase. A pair of church appropriate heels and her brown calf high boots went in. I was fairly sure I was done with her stuff so I turned my attention to packing Puck and my clothes. Ours were totally easy, two pairs of jeans, two decent sweaters, one pair of church appropriate slacks and shoes, some underwear and socks and boom we were taken care of. Kurt came up and brought my back pack, which I’d apparently dropped on the foyer floor in my excitement. I put him to work making sure that Mercedes non clothing necessities, the things like her curling irons and such, were packed too. I had everything packed and waiting on us down stairs when Puck got home after his second exam. 

“Dude, Sam, what’s with the bags?” he asked before heading into the kitchen to grab a juice. 

“Mom is having the baby…like now.” I told him looking up from where I was texting with George and Moma Dani. 

Puck ran back into the living room. “Like now, now…but we’re here and Cede doesn’t finish her exams until three thirty.”

I nodded. “I know. Moma Dani says we should try to get over to the campus and be there with the bags so that we can just hit the ground running.” I smiled. “Our tickets are waiting on us at the airport. We can have dinner while we wait on the flight. Saul and Mills already have their tickets to fly up with us for Christmas next weekend so they are just gonna wait and see him then.” 

“Well that’s just a week away. He’ll probably still have the cone head.” Puck teased. “Angel Mom doing okay, right?” he asked his voice tender and concerned. 

“Yeah. Don’t be shocked if this time next year; it’s your younger sibling on the way. George says that Becah is mooning at the nursery window something fierce.” I told him with a wide grin. 

He just laughed and sank down next to me to get my mind off things by making out for a while. Probably we’d have been late as hell, but we have the best friends. Kurt had taken it upon himself to share the exciting news with our friends and called and let Anika know that they would have to rethink the whole shopping excursion that was scheduled to happen the next morning. He even called us a cab since we had our backpacks plus Mercy’s, our guitars and two pieces of luggage for Mercedes and our own duffle bags, it would have been impossible to get everything downtown without help. The cabbie was even very understanding of the fact that we’d need to wait a few minutes at Juilliard campus for our girlfriend before heading on to the airport. Hell, Kurt even texted Mercedes hoping that she would turn her phone on as soon as she walked out of the exam. 

Kurt’s text turned out to be a good thing because she left the building by coming out the side entrance nearer the subway entrance rather than the Lincoln Center main entrance. Mercedes was as excited as I had been when I first spoke to George. The second she spotted us, she ran towards us where we stood outside the cab. She was so excited, in fact, that she tossed Puck her purse and the messenger bag that held her ‘testing’ kit and jumped up into my arms. “Oh fuck yeah.” I growled against her mouth. I wrapped my arms around her and grabbed her ass. 

“Sam, Cede…get your asses in the cab before you start fucking on the street.” Noah commanded as he was kind of pushing us towards the door he’d opened. I don’t know if he did it or if we just listened or what, but soon I was seated on the back seat of the cab with Mercedes straddling my lap, our lips still locked in one hell of a kiss. I had moved one hand from Mercy’s gorgeous ass up her back under her Columbia sweatshirt and the tank top she had layered under it. Damn, her skin is always so fuckin’ soft. My other hand crept into her leggings and I have never before in my life been so grateful for a tiny thong and my Baby’s bodacious ass. I surged up against the warm wet heat of her that was barely separated from me by our clothes. 

“Hey, no fucking in my cab.” A heavily accented voice broke through the sex fog Mercy and I were stuck in. 

She wrenched away from me catching my hand in her leggings and making me curse a little “Sorry, Sir. Shit, sorry Sam.” she said as she helped me pull my injured hand from her slightly deeper than Columbia blue leggings. I lifted her up, schooched over and settled her into the space between Puck and I. “Sam, don’t hurt yourself.” 

“Please, Baby. You know your men are strong as hell. I bench press more than you every morning and do twenty reps. Lifting you for a hot second isn’t gonna hurt nothing at all.” I looked her deep in the eye. “You know Darlin’, I believe that I still need to prove to you that I can hold you up high and fuck your hot little pussy ‘til ya lose your damn mind.” I lowered my voice just enough that the cabbie couldn’t hear me. 

Puck groaned. “Then I’m next. Gotta remind your sexy ass that these guns aren’t just for show.”

My phone rang shrilly into our heavy silence as we all tried to get our arousal back under control. My voice was thick when I answered. It was Moma Dani so I quickly put the phone on speaker. “Are you all together?” 

“Yes Ma’am.” We chorused. “On the way to the airport now.” I assured her. 

“Good.” She acknowledged. “Gabby is fully effaced and the doctor says that the baby could be here anytime. I’ll try you back as soon as he arrives with his details. Well as soon as I know. Your mom has the name narrowed down to three but she swears she won’t be able to pick a name until she sees him.”   
I laughed. “She pulled that with the twins too. Stevie was almost Arthur and Stacey was almost Miriam.” Thank God she had decided on Steven and Anastacia. Not that Stacey has ever gone by her full name. I wonder if she realizes that her real name isn’t actually Stacey. 

Danica laughed. “Well I’m pulling for Spencer. The baby can grow up to be a genius like Dr. Spencer Reid.” 

“Momma, Gabby is not naming her baby based on your love of Criminal Minds.” Mercy giggled. 

“It could happen.” Moma Dani laughed. “Anyway, I just wanted to let you guys know where we stand since you’ll probably be in the air when the baby arrives. Oh and before I let you go. I just got off with Bubbie. She’s waiting on you three at the airline counter.” 

We said good bye and I turned my attention back to the matter at hand. “We’re gonna need to make some time tomorrow to check that one off my Naughty Mercy bucket list.” 

“Naughty Mercy Bucket List?” Puck guffawed. 

I nodded. “Yeah, don’t worry…I’ve got a Fuck the Puck Bucket List too.” 

We didn’t manage to talk too much for the rest of the trip. We were too busy laughing and clowning one each other. That poor cab driver must have thought we were crazy. But in the end we thanked him nicely and tipped him well, so he probably didn’t give a rat’s ass if we spent the entire ride giggling and laughing. Maybe he was happy to not have a cranky person in the back for a change. 

Our flight was out of Laguardia that time rather than JFK. So the ride was a lot shorter than what I’d been expecting. We caught up with Bubbie at the Delta airline version of a will call window. She was tripping just as hard as we all were, just differently. She was calm and composed for the most part. But she was forcing some poor porter to look at pictures of all of us on her phone. Poor guy looked like he was so not wanting to be there. Though he did seem to perk up when she got to the older crew. Probably she’d just let him see a picture of our Mercy. “Oh and here they are now. Noah, Sam, Mercedes this is Rahmaer. He was kind enough to keep me company until you all got here with your luggage.” She looked at the large number of bags. “You do know you’re coming back on the red eye Sunday night?”

We nodded. “It’s finals’ week. Most of this is just for studying.” Mercy defended. 

Ruth nodded. “Good to hear.” 

We claimed our tickets and checked our bigger luggage with Rahmaer, making sure to tip him well so it didn’t end up in Timbuktu. I don’t care what anyone says, the better you tip the more likely your luggage ends up the same place you are. That’s what Daddy believes and it’s always worked for him. Then we made our way to concourse D, got through security with only one of us getting felt up and looked around to find dinner. We ended up in quickie pizza joint called Taste of Taglaire. The pizza was pretty damn excellent. While we ate, Bubbie Ruth and I explained to Mercedes what Kurt and Anika had worked out to do since she was not making their appointment the next day. “So, Kurt and Anika are going to go out to a few places and whenever they see something they thing you’re going to like, they will buy it and you can try them on Tuesday morning before they drag you to the spa. Whichever ensemble is the winner, you’ll wear that for the premiere and the rest will be returned on Wednesday.” Bubbie told her. 

“Yeah, but Kurt says you’re gonna need to keep your phone close to hand so they can shoot you pictures and get it narrowed down somewhat so they don’t end up with a whole room full of dresses for you to try on.” I further explained. 

Mercy was relieved. She trusted Kurt to pick something fashionable and elegant, but not something she could wear easily. He never minded being in pain to be fashionable. She however knew that if she weren’t at least somewhat comfortable in her clothing, her inner DIVA would rear its adorably bitchy head. And while Puck and I found it really, really sexy when that happened, most people found it off putting for some reason. As we waited for our boarding call, Mercy, Puck and I talked through the exams we’d taken that day. Puck and I had both had our Humanities exam, and it was brutal. We weren’t in the same room because I got testing assistance. I actually think I did well. Thankfully our professor wasn’t a huge stickler for handwriting and spelling. Mercedes had already taken her contemp civ and English finals and her vocal performance one. She had given a totally amazing performance of Alicia Key’s ‘A Woman’s Worth’. Madame Falcone had basically gifted her with an A when she assigned her that song. Granted her second piece was more challenging…‘Bist du bei Mir’…was an operatic Bach aria. For some reason she would only practice that one in the back yard and by the time Mercedes was happy with it she was bringing Ryan, Ben, Jon and Jamie up from their apartments to listen. 

I had made sure to bring Puck and my guitars with us because we were still working on our performance finals. Ms. Isbin had assigned each of us one classical guitar piece and one modern-ish acoustic piece. Puck had gotten an epically cool piece by Enrique Granados for his classic piece. And a song called ‘Trouble’ by Ray La Montagne. I personally thought she thought was avoiding any type casting when she gave me Bill Withers ‘Ain’t No Sunshine’, but I’d been playin’ Mr. Withers songs since my Granddaddy still had to help me hold a six string steady. I was confident in that one. Not so much with ‘La Catedral’ by Augustin Barrios Mangoré. It was so complex. I had set aside quite a lot of time to practice it before that next Thursday, and I would keep to that even if I had to try using the more somber parts to put the baby to sleep. 

Unfortunately, due to the nature of our tickets we were spread out all hither and yon around the plain’s cabin, but the flight was only two hours long. I used that time to study for my Design Futures class. I’d already turned in the final project so the test was supposedly a breeze. But I never trust it when teachers say that. Their breezes are usually my hurricanes. When we landed at Dayton, Bubbie rented a car from Enterprise and we got on the road. Ruth Mayzer very much had a lead foot just like her grandson. We made it from the airport to Lima Memorial in forty five minutes. It was supposed to have taken about twice that. As soon as we got to the maternity floor, Devon had waited on us so that he could show us to Mom’s room. She was knocked out, so we all just pressed kisses to her cheeks and went to see the baby. “Sloane Gabriel Evans meet your Bubbie and two more of your big brothers and your Mercy.” 

“He does look like a Sloane.” I smiled taking him from our father’s arms. “Oh, he’s heavier than either of the twins were.” I murmured talking about both Stevie and Stacie and about Amara and Amaea. 

“Yup. He’s eight pounds twelve ounces. He beat Stevie by a pound but you beat him by two ounces.” Daddy whispered. 

Mercy took him and nuzzled his baby nose with her cute little button. “How long has this gorgeous little man been free of his Mommy prison?” She asked in a cutsy voice. “Hims so long, he was all trapped in there, wasn’t him?” 

Daddy chuckled. “Twenty two and a half inches long, so yeah he was all trapped in there. He was born at five nineteen this afternoon and he is already a heavy eater. Thank God Dani is still breast feeding Maea and Mara, he drained his Momma dry and still wasn’t satisfied.”

“Whoa…” Puck chuckled as he took his turn. “Angel Mom gave you all those S names; I say we should nickname this little guy Gabe.” 

I shook my head, “sorry, no can do. We are not nicknaming my little brother after the demon seed middle child from ‘Good Luck Charlie’.” I told him sternly. 

“I like Gabe.” Puck defended. “He reminds me of myself from back in the day.” 

Mercy and I exchanged a look that made Dad laugh so hard he woke up both Sloane and Mom. “Oh, you guys made it.” She said sleepily. 

Bubbie used the distraction to get her turn with Sloane. I knew that that would be the last time I got to hold him that night. “Yeah, we made it in a few minutes ago. How are you feeling?” I went over to the bed and gave her a kiss she could actually feel. 

She laughed. “I feel sore and achy, like I pushed a county fair prize watermelon through a hose meant for a runty lemon. But I’m happy as hell ‘cause Sloane got here whole, healthy and strong.”

“I still like Gabe.” Puck pouted. 

Our laughter filled the room. Though it seemed that Sloane had gotten used to the sound and rather enjoyed it. Bubbie, Mom and Dad wanted to know all about our exams and the coming premiere. Puck and I had already found our outfits. We were both wearing blue, since our black and white idea had gotten veto with the quickness. I like black and white. It’s classic, and I can’t possibly fuck it up. Instead Puck and I had agreed to blue. He was going to wear a blue blazer, black slacks, light blue and black ‘subtle’ plaid shirt and a black tie, with black dress shoes. I’d pulled the short end of the suit stick and the long end of the tie stick. I’d be in a mid-tone blue, sharktooth suit with a plain white dress shirt and no tie. Kurt and I were still in negotiations about my Chucks versus some fancy, smancy dress shoes. All too soon Sloane was ready to eat again, and I was never one for watching Momma breastfeed, so we left to let them get fed, changed and rest up. 

Of course when we got to the house, there was no chance for us to get any rest. Stevie, Stacey and Sarah wanted our attention and to be honest, we wanted theirs. Amara and Amaea were still awake and were determined to show off all of their many skills. They could crawl like champs and even pull up and sort of walk as long as they were holding on to something, and they could very clearly say up and down. And with that many adults and older kids in the room they had no dearth of options when it came to getting picked up, cuddled and then put down again when they got bored. But best of all, they both knew who they were. Suddenly they had hit the stage where they were starting to become separate little entities. It was awesome. 

We started out talking about school. The rest of the parents wanted to know everything we’d already shared with Momma and Dad, so we rehashed that before moving on to our course load for the next semester. Which was going to be absolutely crazy. Mercy had a hella-full schedule; five classes and a lab at Columbia and a class, a practicum and a forum at Juilliard. She and I shared the three music composition classes but I had an extra guitar class too. At Columbia I only had four classes but one of those was Latin so I was scared as hell. But it fulfilled a requirement at Juilliard and one at Columbia for just that one class, so yeah it was a good decision. Poor Noah was already tired of his schedule. His advisory meeting had been a study in negotiations between two damn determined people. Finally he ended up with four and four. He shared the same PE class as Mercy, it was a cardio kickboxing and sculpting class that Mercy was dreading and Puck was looking forward to with glee. It started at eight in the morning. But they did both have like two hours before their next class after it. Once we finally exhausted the topic of school, Kevon, Devon, Trice and Tonya were talking to us about Mercy’s video and how much everyone they knew were talking about her and us and the movie and soundtrack. It felt totally surreal, but it was so awesome. 

Of course, that was exactly when Mercedes dropped a bomb on us. We had a meeting the Friday before we came home for Christmas because Deborah wanted to move on our first video. “She wants to get two videos out before we launched our debut album. The first was gonna be ‘The Fighter’ from the SongBird Soundtrack, but we’d be doing the brainstorming and rudimentary storyboarding for both that one and ‘Rescue Me’. We were expected to be there at eight and they were pretty much planning to keep us all day.” She said reading over the message. I wasn’t really looking forward to that so I kind of zoned out. I must have nodded off during the rest of the discussion, because next thing I knew Hell Bent was waking me up and telling me to head on up to bed.

I trudged up to Mercy, Noah and my old room feeling really freakin’ exhausted. I stripped off my clothes and headed for the shower. Had I been less tired, I’d have probably noticed that though Mercy and Noah had come upstairs before me, they weren’t in the bedroom. Maybe I’d have heard the shower running, or seen the light coming from the not quite closed door. But I woke up quick fast and in a hurry when I entered the bathroom to see Mercy and Noah silhouetted against the thin shower curtain. Puck was on his knees with one of Mercy’s thick thighs over his shoulder as he licked and sucked her pretty pussy. She was babbling and begging, her hands clutching at the soft stubble that covered his head. My dick got so hard so fast I swayed as the blood rushed south. “So freakin’ hot.” I groaned quietly. 

But it wasn’t as quiet as I thought. “Fuck, Sammy, I’m trying to keep her on the edge until join us, but if you’re just gonna watch let me know. I needs to hear Our Babygirl screamin’ my name.” Puck said sternly, keeping his lips moving against her as he spoke. 

What else could I do? I joined them in the shower as quickly as I could. I took a long minute to kiss Mercedes until her breath mingled so completely with mine there would never be a way to separate us. I made my way, with a thousand nipping little bites down to the lush, chocolate tits that I loved to tease, and lick and suck and bite and I lost my whole being in a groping suckling haze. There was something truly transcendent in Mercedes Antoinette Jones ‘Heavenly Mounds of Absolute Joy’. It may have been minutes, it may have been seconds, it may have been years but it was not near long enough to have her hard nipples in my mouth, her soft flesh in my hands. She screamed out “Noah…Sam…Oh God!!!” and convulsed in our arms. We held her as she slowly came down from her high. Of course, our hands weren’t still, in fact we used that time to our advantage and we traded. I slid my hand down the soft, smooth expanse of her belly to play with her swollen, wet, hard little clit, while Puck’s hands came up to hold and caress her breasts. The cleaning part of the shower was ‘quick and dirty’, we got clean as humanly possible, dried off even faster…Mercy even skipped the lotion so that we could get her on her knees and our dicks in her mouth even faster. 

Mercedes took my cock as deep as she could and then did that twisty, turny, undulatey thing she does with her tongue against my shaft and balls. My knees got so weak, I had to lock them just to keep from collapsing as I flooded her mouth and throat with her reward for a job so fucking well done. Her name a prayer on my lips. When she released me to take Puck deep, I stumbled to the bed so that my ass wouldn’t hit the floor. As I watched Mercy own her other cock, I slowly stroked myself back to full mast. With a start I realized that we didn’t have a stash in the nightstand anymore, so I raced over to my duffle back and dug out the thirty six pack I’d put in there. I ripped open the box and pulled out a long sleeve. “Suck my fuckin’ Dick, Babygirl!” Puck roared as he came. 

“Ssshhh.” I hushed him. “Mara and Maea don’t need to hear you.” 

“Fuck, forgot.” Noah panted as he tried to look like his legs weren’t trembling. “I’m gonna stay quiet…next time.” He lied. I knew he was lyin’ because Puck hasn’t been quiet in his life. He couldn’t even be quiet when he was doing something he knew he shouldn’t be doing…hence his stay in juvie. 

I took a condom for myself and tossed him the rest. I had that son of a bitch out if its gold foil jacket and rolled on as quickly, but neatly, as I could. Mercy was still kneeling smiling back at me sexily as if she had already read my mind. I moved behind her and pushed her shoulders until she assumed the position. I entered her swiftly from behind. “Fuck…Shit Sammy, Fuck me.” She whined. 

“Hells yeah Darlin’…fuck…your little cunny is so fuckin’ tight.” I growled leaning close to her ear. “Gonna fuck you ‘til you can’t do nuthin’ but beg, even if you ain’t sure if your beggin’ for more or for me to finally stop.” 

“Oh God.” She moaned. “Sammy.” I thrust forward hard and fast robbing her of her thoughts and stealing her words. I was feeling very, very dirty. I leaned down and fastened my teeth to the swell of her shoulder, sucking hard and marking her deeply. “Fuck, Samm...no hickeys.” She panted. 

I knew that it would limit what kinds of dresses she could wear, but I just didn’t give a shit in that moment. “Just…Oh fuck you feel soo good…just wear it proud Baby. Never be ashamed of our love-makin’.” 

“Not ashamed…” her voice was still breathless and hitchy. “Just…”

“Just nothin’. You’re gonna have my mark and Noah’s mark on you when you sashay your sexy ass down the red carpet. You get to decide if you want to have Puck and me doing the same.” I told her authoritatively. “In fact…No. You don’t even get to decide that. I’m telling you now, the three of us are gonna scandalize good old Hollyweird. I’m walking that red carpet with two big old hickeys on my neck and so is Puck and so are you.” I commanded fiercely my thrusting hips moving faster and harder. Puck finally joined us, lifting Mercy’s chest and shoulders so that he could slip between her and the floor. “And you’re not gonna let Kurt or who the hell ever cover it up with all their makeup magic either.” I told while she enjoyed a moment’s or three’s respite from the pounding I was giving her as I pulled out of her clenching, tight, squeezing pussy and pressed the head of my cock into her ass, allowing Puck to enter the now free sheath. 

We all hissed out in the purest pleasure we’d ever known. Being together, all three of us, was the time we all felt most whole. Our bodies were consumed in a fire that felt of warmth, passion, love, lust and a million other positive thingies all together, a flame that was as hot as the sun between any two of us, but hotter than Chernobyl when we were complete. When we came to the next morning we were all soar and stiff and smiling to beat the band. We showered and made it downstairs just in time to join the massive amount of family that had gathered to welcome little Sloane home. The rest of our afternoon was spent separately interacting with our family. For the first few hours he was home, I only let Sloane out of my arms when he was hungry since I didn’t have the proper equipment to feed him and Momma hadn’t started pumping yet. Then I needed to go and practice and study. Mercy, Tessa, Tonya, Pattie, Bubbie and Becah finally got off Face Time with Kurt and Anika. 

I was sitting in the rocking chair in Sloane’s room practicing my guitar piece when Momma brought him in for yet another nap. I offered to find a new space, but she said he liked it and it kept him sleeping longer, so I rocked and I played. And while I did, I couldn’t help but remember the day we decorated the nursery. As I’d painstakingly drawn the monkeys that represented Amara, Amaea and little Sloane, Puck had used his laptop and the dads and our brothers had helped us search on line for Mercy’s engagement ring. We had saved money from each of the modeling jobs we had all summer and throughout the entire first semester for it, and when we realized that we’d amassed over twenty grand, we knew that we could definitely afford to get her something amazing. 

***FLASHBACK***  
Since Mercedes had helped both Kev and Dev with their engagement rings, they wanted to help us. The dads just figured they could offer advice on things us young cats didn’t know much about. “Remember, the clarity and cut are far more important than the carat count.” George said wisely.   
Sander laughed. “The most important thing is to make sure that you get the right size.” 

“MeDe said that picking the perfect ring for your girl is the most important thing.” Devon pointed out. 

I rolled my eyes. “Well to me and Noah, the most important thing is that we’ll be able to slip it on her finger before the premiere next month.”

Hell Bent looked thoughtful. “There is a site that I heard about on the radio…Ritani. Supposedly you can build a one of a kind ring and pick it up at a local jewelry store.”

Puck pulled it up and it was perfect. It let us pick and choose so many options there was no way on earth that any other woman would have the exact same ring as our woman. We started by figuring out exactly how we wanted to represent that the ring was from both me and Noah. We found a few in the double halo style that we liked but then Stevie suggested we get a three stone ring to recognize that there were three of us all together. “Oh, that setting has the three stones and it has a halo around the center stone. MeDe likes the halo looking rings. She mentioned it when we were talking about Patrice’s ring.” Kevon told us with a confident smile. 

Dad pointed at the screen. “You know, you can get the side stones in your birthstone since Noah’s already is diamonds.”

“Hey that one has a two part band with all the little diamonds in it.” Devon pointed out. 

Puck stopped him there. “Ok D…that’s just too much of a good thing. We’re doing so much to the main part of the ring…maybe we should keep the band itself kind of simple.” 

Devon nodded, “Alright, but at least check out the one with the split shank. It will keep most of the band simple, yet it can be a visual representation of the way you and Sam are always together in your support of her.” 

Kevon rolled his eyes. “You and your metaphors.” 

We spent an hour or two picking the perfect ring. Then Puck spent another hour going through sites like Tiffany’s and Shane Co. and D Geller and Sons and any other jewelry sites to make sure that we were getting a great deal and that it wouldn’t be something that everyone else had. Only then did we put in our card information for the ring account and pay the fifteen percent down. We would be responsible for paying the rest when we pick it up. We chose to pick it up from the same jewelry store George had gotten Becah’s ring at.   
***END FLASHBACK***

We’d picked the ring up on Wednesday and had it hidden in our closet. Mercedes never went in there because she didn’t like the way we’d organized it…but it worked for the two of us. We were both very anxious to give it to her, but the right moment had yet to present our woman with the physical embodiment of our commitment to being with her for the rest of our natural and supernatural lives. Part of the problem was that we wanted to do something funny or cute rather than going for the more traditional uber romantic route. Mercedes loved romance, but more than that she liked to laugh, with us, at us…it was a little interchangeable sometimes. In that instant, I knew that I was over thinking everything and for a change so was Noah. It was going to be absolutely perfect…at least for the three of us. 

I managed to get Puck alone to talk things through with him and he agreed with me that it was an awesome idea. He did think that it was a little theatrical, but we both knew that Mercy would love that. I swear that weekend was so full that it flew by and before I could really feel like I’d spent anywhere near enough time with Sloane, we were back in the car on our way to Dayton to catch the red eye back to Manhattan. 

 

Dedicated Follower of Fashion (Kinks)  
Mercedes PoV

It was really, really late when we returned home after our mad dash weekend in Lima to meet the new addition to our wild and crazy family. We were so tired that the poor cabbie, thankfully a different one than the one that had driven us to LaGuardia, had to wake us up when we got home to the quad-plex. Bubbie had grabbed her own cab since once you came through the tunnel; she went a whole different direction than us. For the first time in a long time, I was too tired to even be bothered with a shower before I climbed into my bed. 

Six thirty came very, very early, but I didn’t allow myself to snooze more than once. I’d gotten myself into a routine and I didn’t really want to let finals throw it off too much. Besides, my first of three finals that day started at eight. I went down to the home gym and started my vocal warm ups even as I went through my yoga and stretching routines. After I finally had a long hot shower, I found myself singing as I moisturized my body from head to toe. I went back one of my favorite, just plain fun…as long as I don’t think about what happened during that one assembly…and as I was doing my face I was singing ‘Tik Tok’. The little bit of makeup I was wearing that day took three times as long as it should have because I was too busy dancing and singing to get the shit done. I was just in too good a mood. Later Saturday evening Kurt had texted me to let me know that my boys’ engagement rings had arrived. He’d looked them over and they were perfect. 

Puck came strolling in and kissed my shoulder as he headed for the shower. He had two exams that day and his English final started at eight thirty, so it wasn’t surprising that he was up before I headed out. I was a little surprised that he didn’t bother going down to work out. But then I realized that I’d been playing around in the bathroom so long he really could have gotten in a quick workout while I’d showered and everything. With that thought in mind, I rushed through getting dressed. I didn’t have anything laid out, so I just went with a great pair of skinny jeans, layered on a couple of tank tops and a drapey neck ivory cashmere sweater. I finished off the look with my caramel leather knee boots. I checked my ‘test kit’ in its dedicated messenger bag. The bag itself was brown leather and it was totally good luck, it had been one of the first gifts Kurt had ever given me and it still looked pretty much brand new...not even being slushied with the bag blacking my face had damaged it. I added my cell and a novel I was reading since we weren’t allowed to bring tablets or iPads into the testing, made sure I had my keys and my transit card; pressed a kiss to Sam’s still sleeping lip…lucky bastard didn’t have an exam until ten…once I stuck my head in and said good bye to a shaving Noah, I headed downstairs. 

Kurt had made everyone blueberry pomegranate smoothies rich with a fabulous Australian yogurt we’d discovered. He had them all lined up in the travel mugs we’d gotten before the SATs. I entered the kitchen just in time to get his text telling us about them. I grabbed Sam’s and put it in the freezer since he wouldn’t be down any time soon. “Sam and Puck still in bed?” he asked me with a grin. 

I shook my head, then nodded too. “Noah’s up…he’ll probably be down soon too. He’s got an eight thirty. What time do you have to be at the school for the Winter Showcase practice?” Kurt’s exams for both NYADA and FIT had finished the week before, but he’d been one of only two freshmen invited to take part in the NYADA’s exclusive Winter Showcase. For the most part the showcase was used for Broadway types to get a first look at the best of the older students before they graduated. Since Jamison had also been invited to participate in the show, they were each doing an individual piece and they were also doing a duet. The southerner and Kurt had really, really bonded. Sometimes, it almost made me a little jealous just how well they got along.

“We’ll head over when Jamison is ready.” He told me with a giddy laugh. “Practice doesn’t officially start until nine, but we have to warm up and all. Cassandra is brutal about wanting to monitor the choreography for this, she’s even watching us warm up. I almost wish Jamie and I hadn’t managed to convince her to go to rehab. I think her personality was better with the booze. Now she’d channeling her inner Sue Sylvester.” 

I chuckled with him at that. “Well…look at it like this, just two more days and you’ll have the showcase and it will be done and over.”

“You have your big night Tuesday and I have my own, admittedly less huge, big night Wednesday.” My bestie laughed. “Oh and speaking of your big night. I put both of the rings in their boxes in your jewelry chest. They are in the necklace rounder hidden behind your vast collection of necklaces…you really might need to look into your chain addiction before you end up like that poor man from that Keenan Ivory Wayans movie Papa Benton loves so much.” 

“I’m not going to over dose on gold like the dude in ‘I’m Gonna Get Ya Sucka’!” I gave him a strong glare. However in the glaring I happened to catch the time on the microwave clock. “Shit. I’ve gotta go. I cannot be late.” Thankfully the trains cooperated and I made it with a full ten minutes to spare. 

My rhythms and performance class was not quite as focused on performance as the name would imply. Instead it was almost a music based history class. It was definitely a performance class but the focus was to perform rhythms not only accurately, but with convincing musicality. We looked primarily at the rhythms common to the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and then touched on modern theatre. I think my favorite was the Gregorian Chants section, but it was an amazing class all the way around. The final took only an hour because it was the written portion. We’d handled the performance portion during the last week of classes. That gave me extra time to grab breakfast and get in some extra studying time before my Science of Psychology final. When I got to the library, I was barely surprised to find Blaine waiting for me at ‘our table’. Together we went back over all the notes we meticulously typed up over the course of the semester and after our study groups. 

We went into that exam well prepared. It was killer. A hundred and fifty multiple choice or short answer questions and then we had to choose three of ten possible essay questions that had to be answered in no less than one page long answers. I was so happy to be done with that test, I barely cared that I only had an hour and a half to grab dinner and get ready for my statistics exam. I made it…barely. I had been dreading that exam more than all the others, so I really probably over prepped for it. Either that or the professor had gotten us all so anxious and nervous about it only to amuse himself by giving us softball questions and watching us overthinking them all. I entered that exam at ten of six. The proctor finished the directions at quarter after and I didn’t finish until he called pencils down at quarter after nine. It was grueling. It was torturous. It was hell…but it was over and I could look forward to far more pleasant things. 

Since it was late and cold, I didn’t feel like walking home, so I took the bus. While I waited and the entire ride home, I tried to think of the best way to present my men with the symbols of our love and commitment. When I got home, Sam and Noah had had my dinner waiting on me when I walked in the door and they even sat with me while I ate dinner, despite having had their own dinner earlier with Klaine and Bartana. They took me up to the tub and started us a bath. As the tub filled, I chose to check my email only to find one waiting on me from Deborah. She and Anika would be there the next morning at eight, both Puck and I needed to be ready to go and the only reason Sam was off the hook was because he couldn’t miss his finals. But there would be a limo waiting to pick him up after he finished for the day. 

“Deborah says that you should each bring your suits with you…since I haven’t selected a dress, she also suggests you have a basic black backup suit to wear in case the blue ones clash with the dress I pick.” I shared with my guys as we all soaked our finals stresses away that night. 

“That’s doable.” Puck said into the quiet. “I’ll put them in the garment bag tonight and take them with me in the morning.”

“That’s a good idea. I’ll pack some lingerie to take with me. I know that Kurt and Anika picked dresses and shoes, but I can’t guarantee that they thought about the foundation garments.” I said thoughtfully. That bag would also serve the purpose of hiding their rings. It would mean a lot to me if they could have them on their fingers as we walked the red carpet. I let out a squeal of uncontainable excitement. 

“I am weirdly excited about all of this.” Sam agreed with a chuckle as we toweled off. Sam must have thought I was excited about the whole ‘premiere’ thing and while that was exciting, I was far happier about the engagement rings thing “I don’t even mind that I have that won’t be joining y’all ‘til later on. Something tells me that I’m gonna end up being grateful that I have those tests tomorrow.” 

We made love and then slept until Puck and I had to get up and get dressed for the day at hand. In the end my preplanning had proven unnecessary. Deborah and Anika knocked exactly at eight o’clock with a plan that took everything into account. They had their assistants grab our bags, we kissed Sam goodbye, wished him good luck on his exams and we were underway. “Okay, here is the itinerary for the day. Since this is the first time you’ve done a formal red carpet event, Mr. Cohen wanted you to have the full experience. You’ll have a room at the Plaza which is close enough to the Ziegfield so that you won’t have time to wrinkle. I have the dresses waiting on us in your hotel room.” Wait, The Plaza, I looked down at my cute, but not dressy or elaborate burgundy sweater dress and black booties outfit. I wasn’t sure that I was dressed for The Plaza. I glanced at Puck in his jeans, tee shirt, hoodie and his pea coat. He definitely wouldn’t fit in. Sam was dressed pretty much the same too. But apparently neither Deborah nor Anika were overly concerned. “We’ll go there first, allowing you to decide upon your dress for the evening. Once you’ve reached your decision we will make a stop at Harlow and Fox’s brand new New York location. They finally opened a store on this side of the pond and they cater to women with curves. You’ll select the proper foundation garments to go with the dress. Mr. Hummel, Kurt, did an amazing job with picking the proper accessories, even the jewelry; however he drew the line at picking your lingerie.” 

“Jewelry?” Puck asked quietly. 

“Don’t worry Noah, it’s rented.” Deborah said with a smile. “Though she does have the option to buy if she chooses to.” 

I nodded, knowing that I wouldn’t be taking that option. Not given the cost of the pieces that Kurt had shown me via FaceTime. Anika smiled seemingly having read my mind. “Once we’ve finished at lingerie store, we are scheduled to have lunch at Aquagrill. From there we will head to Faina European Day spa. You will each be allowed to pick your services, when Sam joins you the three of you will enjoy a, well, I guess for the three of you it is a thruple’s massage. After the massage, all three of you will have facials, manicures and pedicures. We’ll make our way back to the room where the three of you will have your showers, hair and makeup done and of course get dressed.”

Deborah looked at her iPad. “Kurt has the twenty two tickets for your usual party. He has the time line for the night as well as the passes for the after party. You’ll need to hit the red carpet no later than eight thirty. The movie starts at exactly nine fifteen. Once it finishes, you’ll go to the after party at Cielo. If you can stick that out until at least one, then you can do whatever you’d like. But remember you must check out of the room at The Plaza by eleven. After that it goes on your tab.” 

We were shown into our suite on the nineteenth floor. It was one of their Edwardian suites. A gorgeously sumptuous suite with a living room, bedroom, powder room and a full, amazingly awesome bathroom all awaited us on the other side of the door. In the living room six hanging racks stood, each with a different dress hanging from it. The first ‘dress’ was actually an outfit that I recognized from the Donna Karan’s spring line. It was a beautiful black bateau top, with a perfect amount of sheen to the material. The top was paired with a hand embroidered slim cut skirt that had nylon organza stretch side inserts. The skirt would hit me just under my knees and I saw that someone had placed a pair of polished black leather Manolo Blahnik d’Orsay pumps with a wide ankle cuff and four inch tall stiletto heels. I walked over and saw that there was also a bag hanging from the rack. On the bag were pictures of the contents, a pair of chic diamond earrings in white gold. The two concentric leaf shapes with continuous diamonds had three larger diamonds below the post leading to the leaves. There was also a marquis bezel diamond bracelet and a black leather and Swarovski crystal clutch to finish off the look. I liked it. Every piece was gorgeous, but I just didn’t think it was the right look for me. 

The next rack was just…too much of everything. Monique Lhuillier embellished one-shoulder Faille mermaid gown, with a structural pleats, an asymmetrically seamed skirt and at the waist there was a dense cluster of ebony beads. The Faille of the dress was a beautiful watermelon color and would look great against my skin. The dress would be perfect for the Emmys or Grammys, but it was too much for a simple movie premiere…especially since I was just a supporting character. The dress was accessorized with a pair of long square diamond and onyx earrings, a pair of black sandals that I instantly recognized as Jimmy Choo ‘Lang’ sandals…Kurt did that on purpose. He must love that dress because he and I both love those shoes. He’d know it would be almost impossible for me to pick something else if it meant that I wouldn’t get to wear those shoes. The clutch to go with this selection was a simple black bag with a rhinestone and jet bead strap. 

The third choice was a pretty purple sateen cocktail dress Theia with embellishments at the waist. The dress came to a stop about two inches above the knee and had a wide V neckline, was sleeveless with pleats on either side of waist. And fell in a gentle A-line silhouette. A pair of black and silver Nina sandals with three and a half inch heels, a silver and onyx cuff bracelet, black titanium and diamond earrings and a cute little bag finished that look. The fourth option was a Halston Heritage poly- georgette mini dress with color blocked hem, bateau neckline and spaghetti strapped underslip. It was a pale peach down to the two wide bands of fabric that followed the V'd hem and long cape sleeves. The first of the two bands was a strong, bold apricot and the second was a shiny deep brown. The shoes Kurt or Anika had picked were a pair of matte-coated brown satin and golden heel give the signature Manolo Blahnik "BB" pumps with metallic specchio leather heel counters and four inch covered heels. I knew it was out of the running because all the jewelry was yellow gold. Not for this diva. It certainly didn’t help that this was the third week of December not the first week of May; I’d have frozen my giblets off in that dress.

The fifth was my favorite dress of all. It was a jungle-print embroidered cutwork organza layered over black organza. The organza was layered over deep green with just a hint of blue silk. It had a scalloped bateau neckline at front, V-neckline at back, sleeveless, vertical darting and waistline seam at front and back, silver tone zipper. The under skirt was slim cut while the organza was cut in a modified A line with a handkerchief hem. The shoes just screamed Mercedes Jones. They were Francesco Russo suede sandal with pointed flame-tip counter and vamp in a d'Orsay silhouette with four inch heels. The jewelry was all platinum and diamonds, brightening the look up with very architectural lines that were the direct opposite of the soft dress. The clutch was an art deco inspired deep emerald silk clutch with a snake chain that could be dropped inside the purse and hidden away with silver hardware and seven stone wide strip of crystals wrapped around the entire thing. 

The last dress was an embroidered neoprene fit & flare dress that had gorgeous embroidery which lent an ornate texture to a deep blue dress made with a sheer yoke atop the smooth neoprene fabric. It was nice, but to be honest, it was very Rachel…not Mercedes at all. Though, I did like the four and a half inch, metallic patent leather two strap sandals that looked blue in some light and black in others. The other accessories weren’t very Diva-ish either. A simple diamond tennis bracelet, diamond drop earrings and rhinestone and sapphire clutch just didn’t do it for me. 

I guess my slight hesitation showed. Anika and Deborah finally told me that I could mix and match to get the look I wanted. With that permission, I grabbed the accessory bag from the Donna Karan rack and switched the leaf shaped earrings and the more elaborate bracelet for the starker, more geometric jewelry. Then I looked at the new fifth option outfit all together. It was perfect. “This one. The ERDEM, cutwork organza.” I said with a bright grin. Once that was decided, Deborah dispatched her crew to return the other dresses to their bags, the jewelry to their boxes and then returned it all to their appropriate stores. The Harlow and Fox New York location was actually fairly close to The Plaza, but since Anika and Deborah were both in heels, we took the car service. 

As soon as we entered the store, Puck grabbed my hand. “Don’t just look for tonight. Look for something sexy just because you love it too.” He whispered in my ear. “Fuck, I’m getting hard as a rock just imagining your sexy ass in some of these pieces.” 

I giggled merrily but had to acknowledge the truth of his words as he grabbed my hips and pressed his cock against my back side. “Boy, stop.” Despite my admonishment, I couldn’t help but wiggle my ass against him for just a beat or two. “You know we have a lot to do today. Let’s get this done because I’m getting hungry.” We walked through the shop it was well organized and smelled amazing. In the store they had shop clerks who were dedicated to helping with sizing. They took your measurements and helped you with finding the proper fit in every piece. My very first pick was a ‘because I need this in my life’ long line bra that was a burnish gold and looked incredible against my skin. I decided to get both the panties in the Viola collection as well; a tie side brief with large bows on either hip and a sheer back panel and the thong with absolutely no back panel. I soon found their Augusta Scarlet line, bra, panty, thong, fringed suspender belt, and a fringed komono robe in black lace and red silk. But I couldn’t seem to find what I was looking for to wear under that perfectly wonderful dress. So we checked out, Puck and I made sure we paid for everything since we knew that it wouldn’t be used for anything ‘business oriented’. I decided that I would simply wear something from the bad I’d brought with me. The neckline and back didn’t actually call for a special cut of bra or anything. But then Anika dragged me up the block to Agent Provocateur. 

I looked around and found a pretty bra made from black ultra-fine Bobbinet tulle, with crisscrossing rouleaux silk bindings that create geometric panels and cutouts and placement Sophie Hallette lace motifs which made me feel feminine and sexy. I did feel a little bad letting Deborah foot the bill for the entire Demelza line, bra, panties, and garter belt since I would only be wearing the bra and a pair of panties that night, but she was the one who told the sales girl that we were going to take the entire line. Anika threw a pair of stockings in my size on the counter as well. I started to point out that I definitely wasn’t wearing stockings, despite the cold weather, but she shook her head at me so I kept my mouth shut. Even with the extra shopping, we did manage to make our lunch reservations. 

Aquagrill was an upscale seafood restaurant located near Sixth and Spring that Puck and I agreed we would need to bring the whole family back to when they were all in the City with us. The menu had a good selection of food from small tapas to large, heavy meals. As soon as we got settled, Deborah told our server that we’d be placing a carry out order as well but wouldn’t want it prepared until right before we left. “Thank you so much for thinking of Sam.” I whispered. 

She smiled. “Not a problem. I know how much you all mean to each other.” 

We quickly placed our orders following Anika’s suggestion that we go ahead and have a heavy meal now and something very light for dinner to cut down on the chances of any unseemly bodily functions having to occur after we’re in our evening finery. That made a certain kind of sense, so Puck and I had a three course lunch and the same was ordered for Sam. Deborah told us that she would put it in his hands as soon as he got in the car. “If he’s anything like I was when I was in college…I was too nervous to eat before them so I was always starving after my exams.” The waiter was great and brought out our carry out meal when he returned the credit card slip to Deborah for her signature. I was starting to get way too giddy. As soon as we were in the limo, I reached over and grabbed Puck’s hand. He squeezed mine back and I was soothed by seeing my excitement reflected in his eyes as well. The rest of the ride to the spa was made in quiet contemplation. 

 

Golden (Chrisette Michele)  
Puck Pov

I’ve never been to a spa before in my life. I had no idea what the hell was gonna go on. But I should have known Sexy Mama would hold me down. When we walked into the spa, Anika pointed out that they were trying to have Sam there by three thirty so we had two hours before the ‘thruple package’ began. Mercedes looked at her and asked for a full listing of the services offered for men and the ones offered for women. “Okay. Now Noah is not one to invest a lot of time or energy in his skin or really his overall appearance. In the same vein, he may be playing his guitar tonight since we can never say no to people asking us to sing…it’s a sickness really.” She kidded gaining smiles from both Anika and Deborah as well as the Faina rep who’d come over to bring the ‘menu’. She read through the package that we’d be starting when Sam arrived and then nodded. “It’s only been two weeks since my last wax visit.” She murmured contemplatively. “Since my manicure is covered by the packages as are pedicures for the guys, we won’t need to worry about those. But I would like both Puck and myself to get a facial. Sam too if there is time. But, I guess, that for now let’s start with the Grooming Facial for Puck and I would like to have the oxygen, steamless facial for myself. If Sam gets here with enough time before our appointment for the package deal, please try to work him for the Men’s spa facial.”

The Faina representative, who introduced herself as Brandi, offered to have Sam’s facial done while we were getting our pedicures so that he would still be able to gain the benefit of the exfoliation. Cede gave her one of those dazzling smiles of hers and I couldn’t help but chuckle as the ‘so unfazeable New Yorker’ stood there for a second looking dazed and confused. “That’s why we didn’t even consider teeth whitening for you three.” Deborah leaned over to whisper. 

I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Oh Boo, don’t forget to get a pedicure for yourself. Your shoes are sexy as hell and all but they look like they’re gonna hurt like a son of a bitch. Pamper your tootsies before you torture them.” I reminded her. I glanced over the list. “Brandi,” I gave her a charming smile…it always got me a damn good discount back in Lima. “Which pedicure would you recommend? My woman’s gonna be in some high ass heels all night.”

Old girl blinked a couple of times. “Well, I’d suggest the essential paraffin pedicure or the spa pedi-polish.” 

Anika looked thoughtful. “Can they be combined? The paraffin to totally rid her of any rough spots and then the spa pedi-polish for the rejuvenation and pretty polish.”

Brandi nodded. “We can make that happen.”

“That’s perfect.” Deborah said with a smile. 

I’d been checking the list for me and saw something that looked cool. “I want to do that back purifying thing. After spending the last five summers shirtless cleaning pools that’s gotta be a good thing.” That last thing at up the last of my time before Sam got here so we were ushered into the back. Once in the back we were shown into the men’s and women’s locker rooms where there were lockers for our shit and showers. We were given these plush ass robes; mine was a kind of leaf green. It was nice enough that I wondered for a hot minute if I could steal the damn thing. But it wasn’t quite long enough to make it worth the trouble. They said we should get as naked as we were comfortable with and then don the robes. I took a quick shower in their almost as cool as the one we had at home shower, stepped into the flip flops we’d been given with the robes, pulled on the robe and went out to find Cede. 

I was completely unconcerned with the fact that I was freeballin’ under the robe. But Sexy Mama found it hilarious. “Some people should never get to decide their own level of nudity in spas…you do realize that yoy’re getting a pedicure later right?” 

“Don’t bother me…she’ll probably have trouble going home to her man’s little pecker after seeing what I’m packing…” I joked. 

“Just for that, I hope that she is a he…a big burly ass gay he, like my second cousin Dominik.” She taunted. 

“Isn’t Dominik the one that looks like your Daddy and the Incredible Hulk managed to have a love child?”

She smirked. “Oh yeah.” 

I shook my head. “I didn’t know he was gay.” 

“If he weren’t ten years older than us I’d have introduced him to Kurt.” She told me with a conspiratorial little smile. 

That sent me into severe laughter…the kind where you can’t catch your breath and your side starts to hurt. The thought of Kurt, tiny little Kurt, being fucked by a dude who was brushing seven feet tall and almost five feet across and so muscular that his biceps had biceps…that was just fucking hilarious. I tried to tell her that, but all that came out was more laughter. I still hadn’t gotten my laughing under control when they came to get us for our treatments. The first thing they did to me was the back purifying body treatment. 

My aesthetician was named, I shit you not, Thad. He started the treatment with what they called ‘a gentle exfoliation’ but what felt more like they used some bits of sand and glass in mud to buff away impurities and the dry, dehydrated skin…which thanks to all my time in the sun there was apparently a lot of. Then Thad had me lay down on a bunch of warm towels and he slathered me in a nourishing seaweed body mask followed by a body wrap. Body Wrapping was their way of saying that he wrapped me up like a burrito in the towels and then cellophane after that he covered me in a heated blanket to ‘hydrate, tone and increase circulation’. It was hot as hell all wrapped up in that thing. Fifteen minutes later the timer popped up and I was de-mummified and I showered. Once I was back in my robe, Thad took me to another room and sat me in a chair almost like Veronica’s back in Lima. A little blonde chick brought in Mercedes and sat her in the chair next to me. 

Two ladies of indeterminate age bustled over and introduced themselves as Barbara and Betty…I have no idea which one was who though one was a salt and pepper brunette and one was a salt and pepper haired black lady. The black lady came over to me and tutted over a nick I’d given myself earlier in the week. Then she went to work. She did something to make my eyebrows lay down better…hurt like a son of a bitch which make me guess she used tweezers. Her hands were moving so fast there was no way to tell what was going on. Then it was on to the liquid sandpaper ‘exfoliating’ shit. For the facial they let it harden before the hot towels came into play. This one smelled like bergamot and mint. She asked me if I wanted something I couldn’t really hear, but I figured if it was getting paid for, I wanted it. BIG ASS MISTAKE! She waxed my earlobes. That shit hurt so bad I think I cried a little. When the hot towel and mask came off she did a deep pore cleansing and another mask…again hardening and then boom hot towel…before finally washing my face with a creamy soap type deal and slathering it with some super hydrating lotion. 

Cede and I finished about the same time even though her facial had been whole different. The ladies left and came back with a little thing of Arnica gel and rubbed it into the four hickeys gracing our two necks. Thad and her chick, Missy, came and got us and we were shown to this treatment room that had three massage tables waiting on us in the center of the room and a door off to the side. And, “wow, Mercy, your skin is glowing. You look amazing.” Sam said quietly giving her a sweet kiss before laying one on me. “Cannot believe you let them give you a facial, Noah.” He teased. 

“Oh don’t worry, you’re getting one too, while you’re getting your pedicure.” I shot back. 

“Ped…Pedicure…good thing I had time to take a shower before I came out here. Don’t wanna kill some poor soul just trying to do their job.” Sam laughed. He introduced us to his guide Marta. 

Turns out that Thad, Marta and Missy were also our masseuses. They took us to the side door way, inside was a full on steam shower…which was pretty much just a shower and a sauna in one big thing. we had a ten minute steam shower, followed by a champagne and rose body scrub…they were determined to relieve my entire body of every dead skin cell I’d ever had…after that Thad worked on Cede, I ended up with Marta and Sam had Missy for our hour long aromatherapy deep tissue massage. Then they took us back to the chairs in the facial room where they had set up two stations for me and Sam to get our European pedicure with foot scrub…basically they made us soak our feet in hot water with bergamot and mint oils then they sloughed off any callouses that hadn’t been destroyed in all the earlier scrubbings. Once that was done, they did the whole trim and shape up the toe nails thing. Then they buffed those bitches until they shined like they had actually polished them. While they were doing all that, Sam was being treated to a stripped down version of the facial I’d gotten earlier and Cede was getting her nails did. 

Eventually they finished us all up. We looked fresh and shiny like new pennies. Anika and Deborah corralled us into our clothes and back to our room at the Plaza. There Mercedes took her shower first. She had to wash her weave for the hairstylist, Ronnie’s cousin Rickie had come down from Harlem, at Deborah’s request and payment, to hook Cede up for the night. Having worked with us so long and so closely, Deborah knew us almost scary well, so much so that she had had Sexy Mama’s new lingerie for the night laundered while we were at the spa. After her shower Cede lotioned from head to toe with her unscented, thick ass special lotion before spritzing on her Hermes L'ambre Des Merveilles. I was proud of myself for finally remembering the name of her expensive ass gift from Uncle Saul. Once that was done she put on the super sexy lingerie she had found at Agent Provocateur, I had to tell Sam all about her reaction to finding out that the store actually carried something she could fit. She flipped us off and headed into the bedroom put on her shaper chemise. Learned the name of that too…her robe went on and she headed out to get her hair and makeup done while Sam and I lounged about before finally getting our asses in gear and getting dressed. 

Since the green of Mercedes’ dress didn’t work with the blue suits we’d been forced by Kurt to pick rather than wearing black and white again, we got to wear black and white again. I went full on Men in Black, black blazer, slacks, vest and tie with a glaringly white shirt. Sam went with a textured black suit coat, plain black slacks and a black vee neck pullover sweater. Sam rocked his Bleu du Chanel and I sprayed on my Creed Bois du Portugal. I made sure Sam had grabbed the box from the garment bag before we went out to see if Cedes was even close to being finished. We were kind of shocked to see that she was. Rickie had blown her hair completely straight, with a side part. It wasn’t even bumped under at the ends. Her face was gorgeous, but really natural looking other than her lips which were a deep wine color, dark and juicy looking. Her eyes were big and bright with barely noticeable shading and extended lashes. She was wearing the long, diamond earrings, and they kept peeking through the curtain of her hair. Her dress wasn’t revealing, but it made you long to see the hills and dips that it was enhancing rather than hiding. The skin of her breasts weren’t in any way visible, but they seemed somehow bigger for the lack of cleavage. Her arms were bare, but I noticed a fur wrap was waiting on her near the door. Her legs were also bare from about two inches above the knee and for about two more inches above that their covering was sheer layers of the floaty stuff. She held out her arms. The light catching on the diamond bracelet on her right arm. “Well, how do I look?” 

“There has never been a woman more beautiful than you walking a red carpet.” I told her seriously. 

“So perfectly sexy and modest and beautiful.” Sam agreed. 

Together we added, “You’re just missing one thing.” it was as synchronized as if we’d practiced it, like we said we were going to but hadn’t been able to do so, we dropped to one knee in front of her. Sam pulled out the ring box. We flipped it over together, while Mercedes looked like she was either about to explode or scream or both. 

“I know that there isn’t any way you can legally marry us both…” 

“But would you please agree to wear this so that the whole world will know that…

“I do so want to. You have no idea how quickly I would if I could.” She finished our thought for us. “Oh…wait a second.” She disappeared into the room and came back out in a second with two ring boxes of her own. She knelt in the cradle formed by Sam and my raised knees. I took out her ring and together Sam and I slid it onto the third finger of her left hand. The ring was really pretty. It was a three carat, asscher cut diamond with a GIA excellent overall grade for the five Cs. That was mounted in a double halo platinum setting. The first halo was of amethysts, Sam and Cede’s birthstone, and the outer halo was more diamonds, my birthstone. The setting was supported by a pave diamond studded split shank that smoothed into a polished platinum band. The sizing was perfect, it fit well, wouldn’t come off easily but it wasn’t tight enough to bother her. “Its perfect.” she whispered looking at it on her hand for a long time. 

She smiled, fighting back tears so she wouldn’t ruin her makeup. She pressed gentle kisses first to my lips and then to Sam’s. “I guess great minds think alike.” She whispered. I don’t think we even remembered that there were other people in the room at that point…but the whispering was just more intimate. She opened one box and turned it to Sam, so I helped her open the second box, my box. 

“We so would if we could.” We echoed her earlier sentiment. I held both boxes while she slipped Sam’s ring on his ‘wedding ring’ finger and he did the same for me. It was only then that I paid attention to the ring. It was a tension ring. The band was made primarily of black titanium with two ribbons of platinum inset in channels on either side of the three stones. The middle stone was the biggest, though it wasn’t big, only about a half carat…just big enough to be noticeable and to make it look like you could pull it out through the gap. That stone was a diamond. The little stones on either side of it, set securely in the metal, were two little amethysts. 

I looked over and Sam’s ring was the exact same. “I started to get you each the same ring just in the different metals, Sam’s would have been the silver titanium and Puck’s the black…but then I found this and it seemed to be more us…all together.”

“They are perfect.” Our ‘we accept your proposal’ kisses saw the makeup girl have to do a repair job and Rickie fussing over Cede’s hair. Then we had to hustle down to the limo to keep to Deborah’s timetable. In the car we took a picture of our three left hands and sent it to our families and friends. It didn’t dawn on us that everyone in that room had witnessed our special moment. 

“Sam, Noah, this had to cost a fortune. How on earth did you afford it?” Mercedes whispered quietly under the low hum of Deborah and Anika’s continued rundown of the evening as they tried to plan for every contingency. 

I chuckled to myself. I knew that our woman would be able to assess the approximate value of the ring. She was too girly and fashionable not to know the rough cost of a diamond of the size and clarity that we’d gotten for her. “We saved up for it all summer.” I started. 

“And every job we did here in New York for BMG most of what we kept for ourselves went into our ring fund.” Sam continued. “Originally we thought that it was gonna take two summers to get enough.”

“But they kept throwing huge amounts of money at us for the emergency jobs, so…” I drawled to a close knowing that she understood what I meant. 

“You two are so…I love you both so much. This is just beautiful.” She smiled; her big brown eyes full of love and brimming with tears. 

We took turns kissing her beautiful lips gently. “You are worth every single penny. You are the most amazing woman either of us has ever, will ever or can ever know.” Sam smiled at us. 

“Yeah, Sexy Mama. You make us complete. You make us better. You make us men.” Before we could start any more kisses, Deborah signaled that we had arrived at the Ziegfield Theater, the site for almost all NYC movie premieres, and it was still a surreal experience. We had to answer the usual ‘who are you wearing’ questions. Hugo Boss for Sam, Marc Jacobs for me and ERDEM for Cede…but they actually knew who we were this time. They asked us how our finals were going and how we liked Columbia. It was fucking epic. Cede waved with her left hand a lot. I think she was trying to see if anyone was going to ask her about the ring. The questions didn’t come at that point.

Jill Scott was right behind us in a black and white jumpsuit that made her boobs look massive. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I was totally committed to my Sexy Mama, but just damn. Her hair was in a seventies type afro and she looked really beautiful. She finished off her outfit with some super high, colorfully floral platform pumps. As soon as we were all inside and away from the paparazzi we showed her our rings. She seemed as excited as we all were. The movie was great. I mean, I knew it would be. But it was really good. It was funny and touching and sweet and sexy. Viviane and Lillian end up realizing that they are more important to each other than they ever will be to the rest of the world and the movie ends with them becoming R&B’s answer to the Judds. The movie ended with them earning a miscellaneous music award. Even though Sam and I were only in a few crowd shots, it was still totally weird to see ourselves up on the big screen. Mercedes was totally geeking out. She had done a good job channeling Lillian but there were times when we saw Mercedes so completely through the character, it was wickedly cool.

After the movie was over, Cede and Jill did an impromptu performance of their end credits duet, ‘Turn to You’. Jill totally messed everyone up when she decided she was riding with us to Cielo. We told her about the proposals and finals and the spa. She told us that she been enjoyed Elizabeth Arden for the day. She surprised me when she asked that we not drink at the club. “Eyes are going to be on you tonight. I don’t know why, usually I wouldn’t put myself in your business like this. But don’t give them anything they can use against you. Okay?”

She was speaking out of real concern for us so what could we do but agree. Kurt and the rest of our crew were waiting on us as soon as we got in the door good, including Bubbie and her friend, a tall well-built black man that looked familiar…come to find out it was just Gregory. He’d lived in her building for years and was just there as her escort. She was cheering him up after a bad breakup. I was sad to hear about that break up; Megan made kugel that was to die for. Seth and Summer were totally crazy with all the famous people in the room, Seth more than Summer of course. Jamie was much better at hiding her freaking out. Ryan and Jon were both completely above it all. Ben was, surreptitiously taking a tone of pictures with his phone. The three of us dance every slow song wrapped around each other, but other than that we all danced with whoever wanted a moment for a couple of hours. It was really cool. Hell, I danced with Ciara. I couldn’t keep up at all. I saw Cede dancing with Timbaland, she was much better than me. Thankfully Sam seemed to find people who didn’t show him up too much. Our friends and family all wanted to see our rings up close and personal, but we really just wanted to get somewhere quiet and celebrate them. So we cut out at around two, making sure to say goodbye to Jill and several Warner big wigs and a bunch of Hollywood people. Deborah had the limo take us back to the Plaza. 

Even getting back to the room relatively early, we still didn’t get any sleep. We boned. We fucked. We made love. We played until check out time. Thankfully Deborah had a car waiting on us when we finally got our asses down stairs. Once we got home we crashed hard, sleeping all wrapped up in our love until we had to get up and go to Kurt and Jamie’s showcase. It wasn’t until we got there that we realized during all our inattention, hell had broken loose on social media, in the entertainment news centers and just all through our whole fucking professional world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read, enjoy & review
> 
> Still lovin' our Cedes,   
> Anni


	9. Rockstar, Ignorance, Good Enough, Irreplacable

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MsLadyThankYouVeryMuch, since you are an amazing mind reader, (Seriously guys every time she reviews she picks up exactly what I’m laying down…it’s a little scary.) I used one quote from one of your reviews. I hope that it is ok.

Chapter 9  
Rockstar (NickelBack)  
Kurt PoV

Well, the movie premiere was one of the best nights of my entire life, at that point. We got to go and see a red carpet event up close and personal. And where the last time I was pretty much on being Mercedes’ people duty the night of the soundtrack release party, for the premiere, I could really just enjoy the hobnobbing. We got to dance the night away with the elite of black Hollywood…I met Tyler Perry for Gaga’s sake. He said that he liked my waistcoat. I was more than a little insulted at the level of surprise on my friends’ faces when I recognized him without any one’s help. But C’est La Vie. Despite not getting home until after four, I was back up at nine. On top of the amazing amount of nervous energy I was feeling, I needed to get up early to have a chance to do my vocal and physical warmups at home. I would, of course, run through them again at the school later, but I felt far freer in the privacy of my own home. Once I completed my warmups, I turned my attention to hygiene. I took a long, hot shower and did my entire facial care and moisturizing regimen. Even after completing my major morning tasks, I still had time and I was filled with nervous energy, so I headed down to the kitchen. Cooking, often, could be counted upon to calm even my most frantic nerves.

As I prepared my favorite spinach, bacon and Swiss omelet I realized that the house was entirely too quiet. I turned on the small TV we had hidden in the cabinet nearest the refrigerator. “Up and coming music group KAMA is already becoming embroiled in conspiracy.” The lead female anchor of the local NBC affiliate station said with a rather happy smirk. 

“Oh my Gaga.” I groaned. As I watched in horror, the same video, the sweet and caring triple proposal, I had on my phone. Rickie had taken the video as Mercedes, Sam and Puck had pledged that they would marry each other if only they legally could. It was so touching and so sweet. Rickie had only sent it to Mercedes’ contact list. I knew it, it had come from Mercedes phone, and Rickie had said in the accompanying text that she’d used Cedes’ phone to take the video. So I couldn’t see how on earth they had gotten it. As she threw to another clip, which forced me to the horrific conclusion that it wasn’t the affiliate that had gotten the video.

“The three members of the group have been open about the nature of their relationship. However until the release of this video late last night, there was a certain amount of disagreement as to whether or not it was true or just a publicity stunt. All those who felt their ‘relationship’ was simply a way to garner publicity and set themselves apart from the pack have now been silenced.” The male anchor acknowledged with a blasé kind of impartiality. “Conservative pundits and family value proponents have already begun responding to the video.”

Sean Hannity’s ugly mug filled the screen. “So this band pops up out of nowhere and they are trying to further taint and destroy the institution of marriage. They are shoving this unnaturalness in our faces, asking us to just roll over and take it while they convince our children that it is okay to behave like this. That all love is good love. As I understand it, Miss Jones even spoke on the radio about God and the Bible. Lying about the nature of the love God means for us to share. Lying about the basic nature of human relationships. Telling us that it goes against God not to accept their ‘relationship’…they call it. But let’s just call it what it is…its depravity pure and simple. A whore, a modern day Mata Hari, who has led these two promising young men astray. This is a blatant attack on the sanctity of marriage. Marriage should only exist between one man and one woman. Anything else is an abomination.”

Thankfully they cut from the Hannity clip back to shiny, way too happy crazy bitch. “There are already calls to boycott ‘SongBird’ the movie and the soundtrack, as well as any albums the group may be releasing.”

I flicked off the television. I didn’t want to hear anything more. Mercedes, Sam and Noah hadn’t even gotten home yet and this shit storm was starting. Someone had taken something beautiful and touching and was trying to turn it into something cheap and tawdry. By the time Jamie had arrived and we made our way to NYADA, I realized that it was even worse than we thought. “Man, Kurt, Steve Harvey was going off. Since they had had Mercedes on the show, there were all these people were calling his show trying to talk shit about KAMA. There were a lot of brothers talking out the side of their necks about Mercy choosing to be with white boys, saying that she thought she was too good for brothers. So Carla asked them what color were all the women they had been with and that shut them up pretty damn quick. But then this other caller I think she was trying to defend Mercy. She tried to claim that Mercedes probably had seen her black father acting like most black baby daddies and figured a white guy would be faithful. But Nephew Tommy stopped that shit quick. He told everyone that they had met both of her parents and they were good church going people who had been married for years. He basically called them the Huxtables.” I couldn’t help but laugh. It was very much kind of true. “So then some guy called in talking smack about how Mercedes had been bullied and Sam and Noah had managed to create a weird kind of Stockholm syndrome and she was clinging to them, acting as their little chocolate fantasy to her own degradation.”

“Wow, that person has definitely never met Mercedes Antoinette Jones.”

“I know right.” Jamie smiled. “I haven’t even spent that much time with them and I know how much Puck and Sam are wrapped around her fingers.” 

“You have no idea.” I laughed. “Sam and Noah were both, to all outside appearances, straight as your proverbial arrow. Then Mercedes asked them for some yaoi kisses. Next thing you know they go from both dating her to them all dating each other…even though it did take the two of them some time to understand the difference.”

Jamie laughed heartily. “We’ll just have to stand up for them whenever we get the opportunity. I’m sure that they took all this into consideration when they started on their wild ride, but we can all show them that we have their backs.”

I nodded. We got to the performance theatre, and headed backstage to check out our costumes and make sure that everything was in readiness. There was a final run through of the night’s lineup, warm ups, sound check; only then were we allowed to begin preparations for the night’s performance. The way the program was structured; trios, quartets and larger group ensembles were up first in descending order of size. Once those were all finished, then the duets would grace the stage and finally the solo performances would happen. Every one invited could participate with as many or as few of the performances as they wanted. Several of the seniors were on stage four or five times. It gave the casting agents and directors who were attending the chance to see that they had not only the chops but could hold their own with a variety of other performers. Playing well with others was a trait in high demand on Broadway.

Around twelve thirty, I started getting inundated with texts from Santana and twitter and face book alerts. Apparently Danica Jones was not taking the bullshit being spewed about her baby laying down. Neither were Gabrielle Evans or Rebecah Puckerman, but the truth was that people were coming a lot harder for Mercedes than they were for either Sam or Puck. Someone had posted some BS slut shaming type of comment on the KAMA twitter feed…Mama Danica’s response was priceless. ‘So my baby is a slut for having slept w/ only 2 people in her entire life.’ ‘Wow your definition of slut differs greatly from everyone else’s including Webster, MacMillian, Oxford, Chambers, Longman, hell even MacQuarie Dictionary down in Australia’, ‘they all know that you can’t be a slut without sleeping with either a large amount of people, or using sex to generate some form of income.’ Of course, there were a bunch more trolls, but Twitter was also where we really started to see some broad base support. Santana seemed determined to reply to each and every one of the trollers, but her language was so strong, I could barely read the words, let alone process the subtle threats they carried.

As Jamie and I were getting dressed in our duet costumes, we both got a news update letting us know that Lyor Cohen had had the PR department put out a statement. “The personal lives of our artists do not impact our professional relationships with them. Miss Jones, Mr. Evans and Mr. Puckerman have been honest and forthright as to the nature of their relationship since the night I discovered them singing as they danced in a Manhattan restaurant. KAMA is an extremely talented new group who will have a home at Warner Records for a long, long time. They have already shown an amazing ability to both perform and record. We are looking forward to helping them grow and mature as artists. As to assertions that the relationship between Miss Jones, Mr. Evans and Mr. Puckerman is an ‘assault on the sanctity of marriage’ the very words of the trio preclude that conclusion. They state that they are not able to legally marry. Having met these young people and brought them into the Warner family myself, the only abomination I see in this entire situation is the fact that their privacy was invaded and their happy, private moment forcibly shared with the world. I would like to remind those who chose to spout their personal opinions as to the relationship of the members of the group; these are young people who have barely entered adulthood. I should not have to also point out that as adults we need to remember that words have power and hate speech is not protected by the first amendment.”

“Did you just get the ‘and our lawyers stay down’ threat that was left unsaid at the end there?” Jamie joked.

I nodded. “Wow. Now I’m almost hoping Rush Limbaugh will open his big fat mouth. I absolutely loathe that man. I would love to see him crumble under the pressure of the Warner legal team.”

Jamie chuckled. “Oh yeah. I don’t know which of his isms or crisies piss me off more. His racism, his sexism, his hypocrisy or his idiocrisy.” She smiled evilly. “I have all the juniors and sophomores I know hitting their social media networks hitting back at the right wingers and or trolls with tons of support for Sam, Cedes and Puck.”

“That’s awesome.” I told her happily. “I just read online that Hannity has been hit with a cease and desist letter…they aren’t sure who it came from yet. Either Commune’s camp or someone from Warner.” Though to be honest my money is a certain favorite brother/uncle of the Harris side of the Jones family. “I still want to know where they got that video. I checked; it should have only gone to Cedes’ contact list…unless someone else there was filming too and I cannot see Ms. Jergens letting that happen.” Jamison just shrugged. She didn’t know our friends well enough to know that none of them would betray Commune like that…and she wasn’t gonna make things awkward by being the one to ask if they would.

The last thing I did before we both got into our costumes was to fix Jamison’s hair. The long, jet black mane was pulled back and twisted up into a deceptively intricate bun. I affixed a large red rose to the left side above her ear. By then we were actually really close to curtain, so we went through our centering and a quick final run through of our dance while Carmen Tibideaux introduced the event and the first of the larger groups began. There was a six piece group and two quartets of seniors and juniors. The first group up was an all-girl line who did a rousing version of Cell Block Tango with some of the guys filling in as their ‘faceless’ victims. An angelic blonde Jamison called Marta even learned Hungarian to tackle the Hunyak part. Following them came the first quartet. Four guys reimagined ‘Standing on The Corner’ from the Most Happy Fella. Some more acts came and went and then I heard Aida’s ‘A Step Too Far’ which was the song before us.

Taking our places across the large slightly elevated showcase stage, we launched into the ‘spoken’ intro before moving into the song’s titular dance. Jamison looked amazing in the dress we’d found for her on Amazon. The dress was black, as was appropriate for the scene. It was a halter dress that had an asymmetrical ruffled hem that started high on her left thigh and ended about three inches below her right knee. The dresses halter top exposed a well of modest cleavage. Well, modest compared to the cleavage that I’m used to dressing. The silky dress left Jamison’s back pretty much bare from where it tied behind her neck all the way down to the bottom of her back. We had added a thing strip of a comparable red material tying in the red of the flower in her hair and adding just a little pop of color. However the red served a more practical purpose too. It hid the strap of her bra. When we looked for her shoes, we’d stuck with mid height heels and decided to continue the red pops with them as well. The shoes were pretty, strappy pumps with a thin ankle strap and pointed toe.

The ‘The Tango Maureen’ was about seven minutes from start to finish and the dance itself started about three minutes in. I portrayed Mark and Jamison became Joanne. However we didn’t limit ourselves to the exact same tango steps as the play or the movie, instead we blended an Argentine Tango with a Ballroom Tango and even added touches of the Tango Milonguero. By the end of those seven minutes we were both exhausted, but exhilarated. The applause that greeted our bows seemed deafening. It was wonderful.

We raced back stage to change into our solo performance costumes. Jamie was one of the very first soloists to hit the stage. So before I changed, I helped Jamison reconfigure her look. Her hair was taken down and pulled back into a severe chignon. Her face was changed from a very complex beauty makeup to a stage makeup look that made her look as if she were wearing nothing at all. Her beautiful tango dress was traded for a dowdy, almost shapeless, sleeveless surplice-neck faux-wrap dress in a pale shade of lime that did nothing for her at all. Her pretty heels switched out for a pair of flat Mary Janes and lace ankle socks. While it wasn’t a good look for Jamie, it was perfect for the character she was portraying in her performance. Once she was dressed I turned my attention to myself.

Given the nature of my performance piece, my costume didn’t need to be as elaborate as the tuxedo, sans jacket; I’d worn for ‘The Tango Maureen’ number. So I decided that since the character was something of an ‘Everyman’ type, I’d just wear a normal outfit…well, normal for me any way. A pair of deceptively comfortable skinny jeans, a lilac dress shirt, black waistcoat, and an ascot in gray and lavender. I topped it off with a pair of ridiculously gorgeous black Florsheim Duke Bike toe ankle boots. I was lucky to find that when I returned to the wings, Jamison was just beginning her performance.

Looking out I could see her standing just to the side of center stage. Marta was next to her in a pretty pink dress that looked perfectly preppy and pretty. Marta launched into a spoke version of Glinda’s lines from ‘Wicked’s Popular’. “Whenever I see someone less fortunate than I and let's face it... who isn't, less fortunate than I? My tender heart tends to start to bleed and when someone needs a makeover, I simply have to takeover. I know I know exactly what they need and even in your case... though it's the toughest case I've yet to face! Don't worry! I'm determined to succeed; follow my lead and yes indeed you will be... Popular!”

However, Jamison’s response was to roll her eyes and ask, “Why on earth would I ever want to be popular?” she chuckled darkly stepping away from Marta who froze in an expression of shock and horror at center stage. Jamie moved forward to the center spot of the proscenium before she launched into a great arrangement of Mika’s ‘Popular Song’. The way she sang the chorus, everyone could see how she had melded the alterna-pop song with the show tune. It was really well done. The backup band had done a great job following the sheet music Jamison had painstakingly created to support her mashup. During the energetic last chorus she danced around a still motionless Marta. It came across creepy and vindictive and just awesome. It was the way most of us had felt in high school and she did it in such a way that it became a totally Broadway moment.

Too many and yet too few performances later, I walked out onto the darkened stage and found my place at the piano that had been placed at center stage. I was very pleased to play the piano for the piece. Blaine and Mercedes had helped me perfect it in their little bit of free time. I was doing ‘Moving Too Fast’ from the play ‘The Last Five Years’. Since the song talked about how his life had spiraled out of control, during the busiest part I jumped up from the piano as if there simply wasn’t enough time in my day for it any longer. I moved forward with great confident strides and belted the last verse before launching into the final chorus. When I finished the final “I’ve got a singular impression life is moving too fast!” the audience gave me a very, very, very enthusiastic round of applause. My smile got huge as I realized that Finn, Carole and my dad were sitting very near the front. I knew that they said they were going to try to make it but I didn’t realize they were actually able to get there. I guess they had wanted to surprise me. I even saw all of my roommates, the Mayzers and our tenants standing and clapping for me. The feeling of having all that adulation was indescribable. I raced through my cleanup and grabbed my costume bag before finding my way to the seat they had saved for me. My heart and head were full of absolute joy.

Ignorance (Paramore)  
Artie PoV

Kurt and Jamison’s performances were all awesome. But seeing the look on Kurt’s face when he saw that his family had made it in to see it was freakin’ epic. Burt, Carole and Finn had gotten to the house around lunchtime, not long after Commune had arrived still so sleepy and punch drunk that Santana and Britts had had to help them up to their room. Britts, Tana, me and our tenants were having a pow wow about the current situation with KAMA and the video controversy when the Hudson-Hummels arrived. Santana had called all of our friends and straight up asked if any of them had had the balls to sell the video to TMZ who, we quickly found out, was the first to break the story. None of them had. We knew Mercedes family members wouldn’t do it. For the most part, their love of her was too solid. The same could be said for any of the Evans or Puckermans she had on her phone. Burt and Carol joined us while Finn took their stuff up to the guest rooms. Carole and Burt would be staying in the full bed guest room in Klaine & Commune’s side, while Finn would take one of the bunk beds in the guest rooms of our side.

“This is some BS.” Burt grumbled. “I mean, we all knew it was coming, we’ve been expecting it since the beginning, but to have it hit on something that should have been a proud and happy moment…that’s just…it’s Bullshit.” 

“It is, but Benton and Danica have already gotten with Mercedes uncle and Antwan and they are looking into stopping them through several various and confusing legal means.” Carole told us all.

Ben nodded with a predatory grin. “Good. Slander and defamation lawsuits can bankrupt journalists. The conservative wing nuts have been getting away with murder for way too long.”

Jon held up his tablet. “Some music stars have been weighin’ in and for the most part coming down on the side of KAMA. Jill Scott, Anthony Hamilton, Rascall Flats, Martina McBride and TI have all put out statements saying that Mercedes, Sam and Puck have the right to have their relationship be whatever it is to them and the attacks by hypocrites and blow hards won’t and shouldn’t matter a bit to them. Of course, since they are almost all parents they are coming hard at Hannity for the way that he talked about them.”

“You should check this statement from Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith.” Ben’s very recent girlfriend Rosa said in her thick Bronx accent. “I’ll read it…Love is a blessing. Throughout human history romantic love has come in many different varieties and many different versions…but love is love. These brave young people have found a love that they feel will last, a love worth fighting for, worth working for. That is to be applauded and encouraged not vilified and denigrated. Jada and I both wish these young people the very best in both their relationship and in their career. Granted, we know that this may reopen the gossip about our relationship, but as adults and parents we felt very strongly that we needed to speak out in support of KAMA and their commitment at an age when most of their peers are living high risk lifestyles searching for what these three have already found and others would deny to them just because it doesn’t look like what the world at this time believes they should look like. The Smith family welcomes KAMA to the fam…the musical family…and we hope that your career is long and prosperous.”

“Whoa. That’s legit.” I laughed.

Ben smile faded as he read some more. “Not everyone is as cool. Charles Barkley released a statement too. He’s on Hannity’s side. He even pulled out ‘God made Adam and Eve’, though at least he was smart enough to modify it to fit the situation and added ‘Not Adam, Eve and Steve’.”

“That is the cliché-iest of all clichés.” Blaine grumbled. “Stacey Dash is spouting the same kind of crap. I will never understand gay people, people of color, or women who identify as republican…don’t they realize that the Repubs don’t want us?”

No one had an answer for that. Brittany just looked up, from where I could have sworn she was watching TV on her tablet, and said, “Whoa…TMZ just caught Johnny Depp at LAX asked him what he thought about the controversy. He said that he hadn’t really heard of them yet, but now he definitely wanted to know more.”

“Well, at least that’s one good point.” Ryan grumbled. “Sandy wants everybody to know that he wants in if they plan on taking on the right wing hypocrites.” Ryan’s smile was devious and dangerous. “Sandy Cohen has been a liberal, hippy, Jew for a very long time. He hates everything about Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. He’s been hoping for quite some time that not only would they finally do something that would hit the wrong people…and that he’d be able to get in on the action. He’s willing to do it all pro bono.”

The look on Ben’s face was more than feral. It was predatory. “Think he’d need a legal aide?”

“Cedes’ Uncle Ethan and Berry’s dad Antwan will want in on this too.” Santana’s smirk was sexy as fuck. She was plotting something. “My Abuelo has an in with Mary Jo White. He knew her way back when she was in law school at Columbia. Don’t know the story, but she still sends him cards at Easter and Christmas every year.”

Burt and Carole looked thoughtful. “Santana…can you get her contact information from your grandfather and send it on to the Jones. Atwood, shoot your dad an email telling him about the lawyers we think we can bring to bear. I made a few contacts when I was considering running for state senate. I can see who I can bring in to help.”

Finn came down having already showered and changed. Only then did we realize that it was already five. Santana ran up and woke up our friends sleeping the sleep that only those who are completely sated and satisfied can sleep. Everybody got dressed and raced over to get good seats. After taking the time to bring Cedes, Sam and Puck up to speed on the shit storm their precious moment had wrought, we made it in time to see the opening intro as well as some damn fine performances. We didn’t even have to fight for decent seats, Mrs. Mayzer, and Puck’s uncle and aunt had gotten there early enough to get good ones and hold them for the rest of us. Jamie and Kurt did the hell out of ‘The Tango Maureen’ and Kurt actually came across as not completely gay. I mean, at best, I was kind of expecting him to be a resurrection of the old Saturday Night Live skit, the Effeminate Homosexual…but he seemed pretty much like a regular guy. And the dance moves were fucking awesome. Brittany was looking like a very proud mama; something told me that she had had a bit of a hand in the choreography. Granted I already knew that. Watching her tangoing with Kurt had been easy…Jamison…not so much. Thankfully Jamison was so strickly dickly that the little green monster never got any real footholds in my or Santana’s psyches.

The next time we saw one of our friends on stage it was Jamison and she looked dowdy and kind of anti-Jamison. It was quickly determined why. While she wasn’t green, she was portraying Elspeth and her blonde friend, the one she left frozen in the shadows created by the pale green spot, was Glinda. The song was a little bit of a mashup, of the Mika song and the song ‘Popular’ from ‘Wicked’. Mainly the cadence of chorus of the musical song with the words of the pop song. Her movements were very much classical ballet with some very smooth modern dance thrown in. The performance showcased her range and her ability to draw you into a world of her creation. The applause at the end was heartily deserved.

Some of the other performances were damn good. There was one guy, introduced as Brody Weston, who did an overtly sexualized, even more than the original, solo performance of ‘Let It Go’ from ‘The Full Monty’. It was okay, but the man was damn in love with himself. I mean the narcissism in that guy was approaching Berry-ian levels of self-love. His singing and dancing were both on par with what you’d expect from a senior at a prestigious performing arts school, but I found him really off putting. Kurt was the third to last to perform. He had his shit together. His ‘costume’ was very ‘everyman’. He showed off his piano skills and while he didn’t have a lot of dancing to his performance, he showed his range from top to bottom. The moves he did exhibit were a lot smoother and more fluid than one usually considered Kurt to be. When he finished with his last big trill, the audience was in love. The look on his face as he realized that his family was there just made us all clap harder.

Nobody was surprised that it took Kurt less than no time at all before he slid into the seat we’d saved for him next to his dad. The rest of the final two were very good. You could tell that the guy and girl were each uber well trained and hella dedicated to their craft. The final ovation was a little protracted, but they really deserved it. As we were heading to the door, why the hell did muthafuckin’ Rachel Berry pop up, holding hands with ‘The Full Monty’ guy. “Hello Mr. and Mrs. Hummel. Kurt, I wanted to congratulate you on a job well done. Your first performance showed a degree of heterosexuality that I didn’t believe you to be capable of faking. I must admit that I was surprised that your song choices all kept with the very modern incarnation of the theatre.”

“Well, Rachel, thank you.” Kurt acknowledged politely, even as he and Mercedes exchanged side eyes at the rather back handed compliment Rachel had dealt him. “Brody, I don’t think I realized that you knew our old classmate.” He kept his tone light and calm, but I’d known him long enough to hear the suspicion and basic WTF in his voice.

The smile that dude smiled was kind of jank. I mean, sharks and lions smile at lesser predators that way as if they are just a step above prey. “Yes, we were introduced by a mutual friend and she is just so irresistible…what could I do but get to know her better.” His answer was charming. But all I could think was that he was like Prince Charming from ‘Into the Woods’ he was meant to be charming…not sincere.

Rachel must have realized that none of us were buying the bullshit, so she pressed on quickly changing the subject. “Mercedes, Sam, Noah. Congratulations on your allegorical engagement. I was shocked that you included me on the list of those to receive the joyous news. The video was so touching; I simply had to share it.”

“Son of a…” Puck started.

Mercedes put a calming hand on his arm. “You do realize that your father is a part of the legal team moving to stop the proliferation of that video. He is going to know soon that you were the one to sell us out. I’m not surprised that you’d do something like this. In fact, I feel kind of silly for not realizing that it almost had to be you from the beginning. I blame sleep deprivation.”

“Well, you did have a big day yesterday. We had a lot to celebrate.” Sam drawled sexily. “Besides, you looked so beautiful last night, basking in all your success…how could we not want to see you fall into your beautiful bliss in dawn’s morning’s light. It was too wonderful not to see. Especially when we all had our hands entwined and our rings were glinting in the soft morning sunshine.”

While the rest of us showed various degrees of amusement and/or arousal at the thought of their lovemaking, Rachel looked like she has swallowed an unripe lemon. “I do want to apologize. I didn’t realize that there would be such a negative reaction to you and your ersatz-engagement.”

I felt the hackles rise on almost our entire party. But it shocked the hell out of me that it was Carole who spoke first. “You know Rachel…I’m so glad I don’t have to fake being nice to you anymore. So much so that I thank God every day for bringing Lauren into Finn’s life. The thought of my son tying his life to you scared the hell out of me and this is exactly why. You have no understanding of true, real, love. An emotion so strong and abiding that it is almost tangible. While Sam, Mercedes and Puck may never be able to legally marry in this country, there was nothing false or fake or contrived about the commitment that shined through in that beautiful moment in the video. We all get what you were trying to do by releasing a video that you should have known you were mistakenly sent. You were trying to sabotage their success. It won’t work. They still have their contract. They still have to support of their family and friends. What do you have? Your ‘boyfriend’ over there who is so without real confidence that he uses his sexuality to cover for the fact that he completely aware that most men in every room he enters are better than him? Your fathers, they love you…but you don’t seem to love anyone but yourself. They are both such wonderful men, but the last time I talked to Hiram, he said you barely call home once a month. At the very least get a text every day from both of my boys.”

Rachel tossed her ombred hair. “The relationship between my fathers and I has nothing to do with you.”

“Just like Puck, Mercedes and Sam’s relationship has nothing to do with you.” Burt pointed out.

“Oh please if it wasn’t for me neither Sam the Stupid or Mercedes the Marginally Talented would have even attended the prom that year and they wouldn’t be with Puck the Man Whore now.” She scoffed.

“What you want? A cookie?” Puck grumbled. Probably he hadn’t liked that man whore comment.

“Rachel please do not try and stand here and act like you’ve done all this, sabotaged the friendship I had for you…that we all had for you…until it was dead, embalmed and buried, because you felt slighted because we weren’t appreciative enough of the fact that you helped us find our way together.” Mercedes said her voice was bitterly cold.

“You attempted to rub my face in your fake engagement in my face to show that you were so happy and I wasn’t…”

Mercedes growled. “First of all, I wasn’t the one who sent the damn video. My hair stylist did, she sent it to my entire contact list not thinking for a second that I would have anyone in there that I didn’t consider a friend.”

“So why did you?” Rachel said smarmily.

“Because I don’t trust you.” Mercedes told her honestly. “If you choose to call and harass me, I want to know it’s you so I don’t answer it. So that I can log or record any conversation we do have. I don’t trust you not to still act like a crazy bitch and try to fuck me and mine over…and I guess I was completely right. Notice that you got the video and immediately decided that my motives for sending it was to cause you pain…like I even consider you relevant to my life enough to even bother.”

Rachel scoffed. “I don’t believe that you aren’t enjoying the fact that you have both Noah and Sam dancing attendance on you and treating you as if you hung the moon.” She hissed. “You think you’re so much better than me because you’ve got two hot boyfriends and your stupid contract and soundtrack and movie, but now the whole world knows that you’re just a sad, fat little whore.”

Santana’s laughter rang out and echoed around the room. “Hobbit, you still don’t realize that despite your exalted sense of self-importance, your opinion is no one’s fact. My fact, all of our fact,” her hand gesture encompassed the entire group that had come to see Kurt and Jamison perform, “is that Mercedes is monumentally better than you. She isn’t insane. She isn’t viciously vane and conceited. She has an amazing amount of talent. Her contract has given her Warner’s legal department to deal with the shit storm you’ve caused.” She began.

I saw her point and continued for her. “Her soundtrack and movie have made it so that while you’re still humpin’ trying to get all the class solos, she’s already got the world clamoring to hear her voice and see her face. She hasn’t got shit to be sad about. She has a freakin’ awesome family, her completely devoted husbands, the best friends a girl could ask for and she just keeps getting more and more of those…real friends not people she uses or who are using her.”

Blaine took over from me. Maybe we were all ganging up on Rachel, but we’d spent the whole afternoon worrying and freaking out about drama she had caused for no reason at all. “Is Mercedes the size zero or two that most women are killing themselves trying to get down to, no…but she is happy, beautiful, sexy and loved the way she is.”

“As for the whore comment…” Finn chimed in. “I’ve known Mercedes forever…in fact, I knew Mercedes even before I really got to know her. She isn’t a whore. You told me all about feminism and how being in control of her own body and sexuality is important for any mature woman. I thought that meant that just having two lovers that doesn’t make her a whore. Cheezus, its Mercedes! She is like the most morally upright person I know. In fact in high school I started making good choices only when I started thinking ‘what would Mercedes do’ before I picked what to do. She could have had sixty lovers and as long as she and they were happy with the arrangement and not hurting anyone…who the hell gives you the right to stick your nose into business that isn’t yours?” he asked.

“Now, Ratchet, why don’t you please take your literal man whore…the women who have utilized his services all around this city laughed their asses off at you last month for trying to make a ho into a househubby, About fifteen of them told me all about it at the record release party…take him and go to hell.” Santana’s smirk was fucking cruel and hot as hell.

Rachel tried to look unfazed by my Devil’s observation. But we could all see the truth in the eyes of both her and the dude Brody. “I don’t know what you are talking about. Brody is an up and coming student and soon to be a big name on Broadway.”

“Oh so you’re the whore. Using him for a hand up the Broadway ladder.” I said thoughtfully. “I know that you’re coming to realize that Mr. Schuester wasn’t right about you being the end all and be all of talent, but I didn’t realize that you were that insecure in your abilities. I mean, hitching your star to a gigolo…that’s just pathetic.”

“Maybe he’s trying to use her for a come up…he wants to move up the ranks from ho to pimp.” Puck laughed.

“Well, we will leave them to that. We’re going to take Kurt and Jamison out to celebrate their killin’ their performances. We’re going to stop letting negativity spoil what should be a time of triple celebration.” Ruth said giving all of us one of her disarming smiles. “Since I really do like your fathers, I’m going to also point out that my grandson has a point about your little boyfriend. He’s working you just as hard as you’re working him. Now good night Rachel…hopefully this is the last time we will have to have a conversation like this one. Please learn to let go of whatever slights, real or imagined, that you blame on Mercedes, Sam or Noah.” With that amazingly appropriate exit line we turned as one to make our way out the door.

On the way out, Brittany turned back and calmly spoke. “Rachel, you need to tell your black dad what you have done. Soon you’re gonna burn down the bridge you think is unbreakable. Soon they are going to need to do what they have to do to bring the color back into their world just like we all did.”

There was nothing more any of us could say. We headed out and had dinner at a really awesome Mexican place called Dos Caminos on Park Avenue. The food was so fucking good. That night the lovemaking was fierce, but both quick and quiet. The master suite was technically supposed to be pretty well sound proofed, but we didn’t want to risk it with Finn down stairs. And both Tana and I had exams again that Thursday. Thankfully it was our last day of finals. The house would be clear except Commune by Friday evening and on lockdown Saturday morning. Lester said that while the house was empty and there would be no one in or out for two weeks, Rangeman would have the house on some special monitoring system that they did for their clients when they went on vacations. I loved our independence and our house…and I would miss sleeping with my dolls every night, but I was looking forward to spending some time with my parents.

It was hard for me to believe that we were done with our first semester of college. I couldn’t even wrap my head around how busy we’d been the whole time. Every minute of the day from eight to six was scheduled down to the ten minute time span. We kept the nights for spontaneity. A lot of the time we had dinner at home and chilled out. I managed to get Santana addicted to Assassin’s Creed and Brittany fell in love with the Sims 3 so we’d spend hours playing and talking and just getting our psychological and emotional groove on. Most nights we made love, some nights twice or more. Then on weekends we spent as little of our time as possible doing responsible, adult things, like cleaning, shopping, any school work or projects that we didn’t get finished during the week. Of course, for about two months, our Saturdays were spent in the music studio with Cedes, Puck and Sam. That was some awesome shit. It was really and truly cool as hell. All three of their producers were kind of epic. They kind of took me under their wings and showed me a lot. I couldn’t wait until I had a class in editing…some of the stuff they had showed me would step my game up to a whole new level.

I have to say that I was pretty confident that I had As, high ones, in all of my classes. I fucking loved college and while I’d enjoy the break I couldn’t wait to see what the future would bring.

 

Good Enough (Jussie Smollett, Cast of Empire)  
Antwan Berry PoV

I have always loved my daughter from the very first moment we knew that she existed. Hiram and I had worked hard her whole life to make sure that she had a good life, a happy life. We put her in dance classes, any that she wanted to take. Then when she proved to have talent, singing classes. There wasn’t much that she wanted that we didn’t make sure that she had. But by the time she was ten, the signs started to show that there was nothing in her life that she felt was good enough. She didn’t appreciate that she had two fathers who loved her with all our hearts. She could only see that she didn’t have the same type of family the children at her school had. After that it wasn’t long before she started to regress in the way she dressed. She said that she just wasn’t comfortable in the more body displaying clothes the other girls wore and for a time both Hiram and I didn’t just respect her decision, we were grateful for it. Neither of us had been looking forward to our little girl hitting puberty…anything that delayed it for a while seemed not to be a bad thing.

By the time she entered high school, we’d dealt with the whole menstruation issue, with the help of my grandmother…the only one of our families still talking to us. My parents and siblings had never liked the fact that I was gay. Hiram’s family hated the fact that I wasn’t Jewish and had no plans to convert. And all of them, except my Mammaw, had chosen to stop talking to us all together when we decided to have Rachel. They felt that two gay men should never have children. Though they could never agree if our having a child would turn the poor thing gay or into a raving lunatic. I had always scoffed at their assertions that a child raised by two men was never going to be ‘right in the head’. I never thought that they could be right.

Part of me; the rational, logical, educated part of me; knows that Rachel’s diagnosis was primarily because she had both alleles for the psychological disorder. But the dad in me, the man who has loved her and felt responsible for her well-being and happiness since the moment the pregnancy was confirmed…I feel like I failed my baby girl. I had failed to teach her right from wrong. I had failed to impart wisdom, compassion and empathy to her. I had failed to teach her to temper her natural tendencies to selfishness and avarice with love and caring. These feelings of failure were only exacerbated by the fact that no matter what plans we undertake to help her, Rachel is just pulling further and further away.

Hiram had to have similar feelings of overall parental failure, but he seems to be completely focused on the guilt of having provided the faulty genetic material that gave her the NPD diagnosis. He really wants to find another surrogate and have another baby, a biracial one this time…he feels that we still have so much love to give. He does have a point; I just don’t think that we can replace Rachel with another child. The discussion got to me so much that I brought it up during one of our sessions with Dr. Watson. “Did you always intend to have only one child?” she asked us as soon as I finished laying my feelings out for her.

Both Hiram and I were bashful about answering that one truthfully. “She hadn’t. We thought that we’d have another after she started school.” I finally blurted into the dejected silence filling the office.

“But she…Rachel never really learned to be happy around other kids. She would come home and be so relieved that she didn’t have to share our attention with anyone else.” Hiram finally admitted.

Dr. Watson made a note. “How did she react to sharing the two of you with each other?”

I sighed. Hiram thankfully took this one, “she was fine as long as she was included in the affection sharing. I could kiss Antwan and he could kiss me as long as she got a hug or peck on the cheek herself.”

“And you allowed that…you allowed her to hold your affection hostage?” she seemed surprised.

This time I stepped up to the plate. “We didn’t see it like that at first. We thought it was adorable. It wasn’t until we made friends with other people with children that we understood it was another way she made everything about her. While it was adorable and to be expected when she was a small child, she should have grown out of it…but she never really had.”

Again Dr. Watson made a note in her pad and asked another leading question. “Hiram how do you feel about Antwan’s last statement? Is it an honest assessment?”

Hi nodded. “Yes. We didn’t really have any close friendships with any straight parents, and none of our gay friends had children until fairly recently. It never discussed her specific behavior patterns in any of the parenting books we read. She wasn’t trying to displace either of us when we shared our little PDAs, she just wanted to share in the love.”

“She wanted to share in your love for each other but refused to share even an iota of the love you had for her.” Dr. Watson summarized quietly. “Even now, you two are afraid of bringing another child into your home. Are you sure that you are not saying that you ‘don’t want to fail another child’ because you still fear the reaction of Rachel when she discovers that you’re finally having the other child you’ve wanted since before she was born?”

Hiram and I exchanged looks. We were shocked to realize that we’d allowed Rachel to stop us from living our lives the way we’d intended to. We were never going to be a stay home kind of family. There was supposed to have been summers learning Italian by living in Italy. Winter ski trips to Vale. LGBT family cruises. Slowly we thought through the decisions we’d made; vacation plans that had been changed because Rachel refused to go to where Hiram and I had chosen despite the fact that it was a kid’s dream trip to Disney World, the way we’d needed to completely rearrange our lives to cater to her outrageous schedule, the pleading and tantrums that occurred when we’d tried to step down her activities, our entire household changed when she decided that she wanted to become first a vegetarian and then the even more restrictive vegan, even now we’d had to take out second mortgage, only three years after paying off our first one, to take care of her rent and living expenses because she had not even tried for a single scholarship or grant, completely refused to take out any loans and we’d saved enough for her tuition, but not for her to live off campus in a city like New York. “Doctor, in your honest opinion, have we been too permissive? Did we allow her too much control?” I couldn’t refrain from asking.

“It isn’t my place to answer that.” She smiled gently. “What do you think? You’ve made friends with some other parents now. Do you see your behavior mirrored in their homes?”

We both shook our heads. All the kids whose parents we now hung out with, the parents who had accepted us despite our fear and the way our daughter had treated their children, had gone out of their way to find scholarships and grants and had needed to be talked out of taking out loans. The teens that Rachel had once called friends worked all summer to decrease the need for their parents to give them money throughout the year. We knew that even if Rachel hadn’t needed to be hospitalized for most of the summer, there was no way that she would have been willing to take time from her busy summer schedule of dance and singing lessons, that she really could have taught, to get a job. She was still angry at us because she didn’t like the location of the apartment we’d found for her.

“Then before our next appointment, I want both of you to make three lists. The first should contain the pros and cons of having another child or children. The second…write out all the ways you lost who you were as men and as parents as you allowed your lives revolved around your daughter, pay attention to things that you now know were far and away above the call of fatherhood. The final list, I want you two to write down the changes you would make between the way you behaved when Rachel was growing up and how you would raise any future children.” Dr. Watson assigned us our homework.

As we made our way to the car, Hiram took my hand. We always held hands as we walked, but over the last several months, our bodies had begun to move closer and closer as our intimacy resurged. I stopped as I realized something. “We’re finding our way back to each other. Is that why I’m afraid of having another child…because I’m scared we’ll lose us again?”

“It is something we should consider.” Hiram assured me. “We were twenty seven and twenty eight when we had Rachel. Finding and vetting a surrogate takes time. It could be two or three years before any other baby came. We’d be retirement age before this child graduated high school.”

I shrugged. “That doesn’t bother me. Even if we don’t add anything further to our retirement accounts, we are set for a pretty decent retirement.” That was true. We’d been able to save a lot before we’d ever had Rachel in the first place. It was how we’d been able to get a fifteen year mortgage and pay it off a bit ahead of time. “I’m more concerned that we’d just be creating another Rachel. What if it isn’t the genetics that made her turn out this way. We let her have everything she wanted. Everything she even hinted that she wanted. That’s no way to raise a well-adjusted child.”

Hiram sighed. “You know what? I love our daughter, but I’m tired of talking about sad things. Tell me something good. Make me laugh.”

I chuckled. The thing I had to tell him was spawned by the latest ill-advised, craptastic tantrum our daughter had thrown. “Well no matter what our beloved child was trying to accomplish…her actions may well lead to us taking down at the very least Limbaugh and Hannity…but Danica, Gabby and Becah want to try to get rid of Fox News altogether.”

“Dani, Gabby and Becah…what about the guys?” Hiram smirked, well able to guess their reaction.

I shrugged. “They were more concerned with whether Harris, Cohen and I could get them all off if the abducted and beat the ever living shit out of the two talking heads, more than bringing down a corrupt quasi-journalism empire.”

“I can understand that.” He smirked. “Even if all you guys do is rub some more of the shine off those assholes, that’ll is good, but if you all can run those hate mongers out of business…that would be perfect. You manage to do that and you’re gonna end up famous. You’ll be like a new, more handsome, gay Johnny Cochran.”

My laughter traveled across the parking lot turning a few heads in our direction. “I’m not trying to be famous. I just want this world to be at least a little more tolerant. Besides, I don’t think we’ll manage to take Fox News all the way down. And if by some miracle we do, the Kochs or Rupert Murdoch will figure out a way to work around any injunctions. But I’m willing to settle for a few months or years of intelligence and peace again.” I let us into our Audi and slid behind the wheel. “Danica said that car seats are even more of a pain in the ass than they used to be.”

As always, my husband rolled with my non-sequitur. “Yeah, but Sandor said that there was a new one that goes from newborn all the way to like twelve.” He smiled. He was winning this battle. I’d never have told him, but the choice we made not to have any more children had hurt like hell considering that the next child was to have been mine. We’d done the sperm race the first time…but had agreed that whoever didn’t win that one would father the next baby. “This time we’re only using your swimmers…and we find a white or Jewish egg donor.”

I shook my head. “How many times do I have to tell you that Jewish is just another shade of white?”

“It is not. We were slaves in Egypt…the Jewish people come from Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization…the Middle East…we are not white.” Hiram resurrected our age old argument, only to stop when he realized that I was trying to do. “Stop deflecting, what is it? You starting to realize that you’re wavering on the whole no more babies discussion?”

“I’m still not…” I paused as the thought hit me that he was right. I was a whole lot more sure than I had been before our session. “I just don’t want to fail another child like we did Rachel and I am scared that we won’t survive it if we do.”

Hiram shook his head. “We aren’t stupid nor are we insane. We won’t make the same mistakes again. And hey, we didn’t totally bomb fatherhood 101. Rachel is strong and healthy and talented. If she weren’t a complete and total narcissist, she’d be perfect.”

I couldn’t hold back my laughter, I didn’t even try. “Yeah, she’d perfect…except for being ‘bat shit crazy’ as the littlest Puckerman likes to call her.”

“Awnh, perfect is overrated and boring. Besides…if Rachel wasn’t Rachel, you wouldn’t be getting ready to over throw the current conservative news regime.”

“And if she was perfect, we wouldn’t be so close to the Jones, Lopezes, Abrams, Cohens, Andersons and all the others.” I pointed out. “I guess everything happens for a reason, even you having a baby with your cousin.”

He swatted at my arm. “Twan, it will never not be too soon for that joke.”

“Sorry, Hi, but it has officially gotten to the funny stage.” I sighed. “Is it wrong that I’m feeling less like a total and complete failure as a parent by thinking of all of the positives Rachel’s mental illness has led to?” I asked a little ashamed of myself.

“We’re simply human, ‘Twan. If we didn’t find some way to deal with these feelings of guilt and failure, we wouldn’t be able to function. We’d smother or drown in the well of all those negative emotions. Rachel is our daughter. We love her…warts and faults and all. We did the best we knew how to do for her. We’ve done what we promised ourselves we’d do. We’ve always given her the unconditional love and support that our families wouldn’t give to us. We tried to give her wings to fly and a safe place to land. We weren’t failures as fathers. We just…we were dealing with an illness so far outside our frames of reference it was laughable. We were trying to recreate the Grand Canyon with a screwdriver and a spoon.”

“If we do this…we should look for a surrogate who is good with having multiples. One of the first mistakes we made was not having another child when Rachel didn’t make friends easily. Neither of us are only children, so we learned to play well with others. Rachel didn’t have the benefits of cousins or daycare, or anything…at the same time; we’ll be like sixty-six when a new baby graduates high school. Doing them one at a time isn’t an option for us this time around.”

Hiram sat in silent contemplation for a long moment. “Alright…but no more than four.”

I rolled my eyes. “Great, you just jinxed us. Now we’re gonna end up being the octodads.” I knew that we’d still need to complete Dr. Watson’s directives. We’d have to talk to Rachel about our decision, but the decision had been made; now we just had to reinforce our backbones and stick to what would make us happy, rather than just want Rachel wanted. We’d given her eighteen years of unfettered control of our lives. It was time to take our control back. We were the parents…it was past time we remembered that.

 

Irreplaceable (Beyoncé)  
Emma Pillsbury PoV

Sue Sylvester had been hounding me for almost a month to find out what Will had done to ‘send me to the sane side of the force’. I did not want to share the humiliating details. How could I tell her that I had supported William Schuester through some of the worst decisions a man could make. I had supported him, gently trying to show him the right way to behave, gently teaching him about pedagogy and fairness, but holding him down even when he didn’t listen. I supported him when he went off to New York, even going with him and helping him to find and clean an apartment. I even supported him when he decided to make New York his new home…leaving me and what I thought we were building behind. Telling me that we’d make it work, he’d visit as often as he could. He loved me too much to force me to suffer through the hell that is flying on an airplane for anyone with even borderline OCD.

That’s what he said anyway. From the end of May to the end of August, he’d made it back to Lima exactly two times. One of which he didn’t even bother telling me about. I tried not to let that get to me. I tried to remember that he was working very hard and was having to play catch up with people who had been on Broadway since they were children. I made excuses for him until I could deal with the pain of it. No the straw that broke the camel’s back happened during the first week of November, when he called to talk to me about his wonderful Broadway life. Will was nine minutes late for our appointed Wednesday call time. We talked and he told me all about his new role and his wonderful cast mates and city. He went on and on about how he’d seen Rachel and she was doing so well at Tisch. Of course when I asked if he’d seen any of the other New Directions who had settled in New York…he hadn’t. He didn’t even realize that Mercedes, Sam and Noah were already working on their first album. I didn’t tell him how sad it was that he was still playing favorites even after having found that Rachel had been playing him for two years. Then I heard it. April freaking Rhodes’ shrill voice. “Hmmmm, Will…are you coming back to bed?”

“Wow.” I couldn’t stop myself from saying. “While I appreciate you keeping to our calling schedule, I cannot believe that you had the nerve, the unmitigated gall, to call me with another woman in your bed. The same bed that I helped you buy, in the apartment that I cosigned the lease so you could lease it.” I said my voice a lot calmer than I actually felt. “I hope that your wonderful Broadway show is paying you well William. You were supposed to repay me for helping you get set up in Manhattan. You were supposed to send a hundred a month until you’d paid me back the sixty-five hundred dollars I ended up shelling out to get you all ready to cheat on me behind my back on the bed I helped you pick out.” I took a deep settling breath. Thank God that I’d had the wherewithal to insist that we put it all in writing. “It’s been six months and you’ve not repaid me a single dime. I hope that your bed warmer is a lot more flush in the pocket than rumors are saying, because I’m now calling the entire principle of the loan due.”

“Emma, it isn’t what you’re thinking. She just needed somewhere to sleep off a bender. She showed up here about seven thirty already three sheets to the wind and she was still drinking. I couldn’t send her home in a cab when she wouldn’t be able to give them her address.” He whined.

“Schue, why don’t you bring Li’l Willie back in here…still haven’t shown you the trick that got me the second shit ton of money I was left.” April’s voice came through loud and clear. “Besides, Silly Willie, you’ve gotta work off the rest of your rent for the month.” 

I laughed humorlessly. “That really just happened.” I said with a wry smile he couldn’t see. “You have ninety days to get me my money Will…Oh and by the way. You’re a moron. The fact that you still can’t see that Rachel is probably going to be the least successful of all your kids not only because she is even more of a wackadoo than I am, but because she is a nightmare to work with. I hope that you catch something from that gold digger you’re whoring yourself out to, and I hope that you get black listed from every avenue of employment you can get in New York other than waiting tables. And when you do, don’t come crawling back to me. I should have married Dr. Carl. He was a real man.” I hung up with the stupid bastard and ignored his calls. I didn’t hear his voice again until I was listening to Sue give him what for. That had to be one of my favorite Sue Sylvester moments of all time.

I shook off those thoughts as I turned my attention back to records I was looking over for Figgins. The next set of New Direction seniors weren’t quite as exemplary as the my crew, but as I cleaned up their transcripts to send out to their colleges of choice, I couldn’t help but think that they were still damn fine kids. I was glad that they were learning so much under Shelby’s tutelage. My mind wandered to the press release Figgins had asked me to compose to respond to all the calls the school was getting in reference to Commune’s relationship. I wanted to tell them all to go hang and let the kids enjoy their happiness. While the thought of what they must be getting up to makes me have to take an extra-long shower…just the thought of exchanging bodily fluids like that made me wonder if I would ever overcome my affliction enough to have a normal relationship...because I found the idea of two person intercourse abhorrent. Adding even more sweat and other fluids to it was beyond what I could deal with.

I wrote a professional version of a statement that basically said we had no opinion on our former students’ love lives other than to wish them happiness and success. Instead I pointed to their academic and extracurricular achievements. Then I did something I had begun doing every evening since Sue’s conversation with Will…I checked the numbers on KAMA’s single and the SongBird soundtrack. Both had almost doubled their sales since the scandal broke. I smirked and used Fandango to pre-order two tickets for SongBird. Even if I wasn’t able to go…movie theaters are even more disgusting than airplanes…I would pick up those tickets and support Mercedes and make sure that her movie was a success. It felt much better supporting people who would actually appreciate it.


	10. Breakin Stuff, Video Killed The Radio Star & Dime, Quarter, Nickle, Penny

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special thanks to KayBee80 & Illiandyanndra who have been Beta rock stars for all of my thirteen stories  
> Anyone who is interested in applying to Beta the Learning French Series going forward, please PM me. I need one to two new betas. Please & Thank you.

Chapter 10  
Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact: Atty Ethan Harris (317) 777-9573 or Deborah Jergens (212) 555-2481

KAMA SPEAKS: CALLS FOR MORE TOLERANCE, LOVE & ACCEPTANCE

Mercedes Jones, Noah Puckerman and Sam Evans, known collectively as KAMA, wish to thank all those who have offered words of support and encouragement online and via phone calls to radio stations, call-in shows and the like. They offer no apologies to their dissenters. Yes, KAMA is and will remain a polyamorous triad. They have absolutely no desire to ever change that. They have been together for almost two years and are not entering their commitment lightly. They are happy and remain committed to each other. They chose to express this commitment by exchanging rings and pledging their fidelity to each other. Most of the population is never called upon to define what marriage means: it means total sexual and emotional fidelity, ‘til death do us part’. In life, many people find that the ideal is near-impossible to sustain: not everyone gives up on making their relationships work, but many cheat, and many more languish in their refusal to admit that they attempted to have all of their needs met by the wrong person, forever. Yet, despite what statistics show, many other people find their soulmates and stick with them through thick and thin…through hell and high water. Mercedes, Noah and Sam have found, in each other, the persons they are destined to spend their life with. They refuse to allow small minded, bigoted people to ruin what they have.

While strides in understanding the concept have been made, the reality of polyamory is often misunderstood by the general public and the media. To the average person, the idea of a polyamorous relationship invokes images of swing parties and clubs with people sharing carnal relations in dark corners or polygamous families with men controlling unhappy sister wives and lots of children. These images perpetuated by Hollywood are not polyamory, nor do they usually represent the ‘swing lifestyle’ or polygamy accurately. However, the truth of polyamory is simply loving and being loved by more than the ‘traditional’ number of people at one time. Sometimes that means a triad, sometimes that means a quartet…or even more. Few polyamorous relationship view fidelity as an option…for them it as much a necessity as it is in a traditional monogamous couple. There must be commitment, communication, respect, trust and love in any polyamorous relationship just as there must be in any more traditional relationship. Feel free to visit www(dot) lovemore(dot) com(backslash) polyamory (backslash) for more information.

KAMA would also like to remind those champions of the ‘right’…those proponents of family and Christian values that have come forward to denigrate and bash their relationship…of the words of Christ as stated in John chapter eight verse eight. “So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” To the pundits who are readying their slingshots; four marriages, one of which with the definite stain of infidelity beforehand and further advocating for allowing infidelity with in a marriage by stating that in a successful marriage ‘a wife should let the husband do whatever he wants’ would constitute a sin in the eyes of any reasonable person. Also remember that polyamorous relationships stretch back to biblical times as is illustrated by the fact that King David, ‘a man after God’s own heart’ (1 Sam 13:14), the beloved of God, had a multiple wives.

####

Breakin’ Shit (Limp Bizkit)  
Mercedes PoV

Wednesday evening I was so proud of both Kurt and Jamison but I was also a seething cauldron of pure, terrifying rage. How dare anyone try to say that loving Sam and Noah or them loving me or them loving each other was wrong? Still, I was not going to let the thoughts of bigots ruin my time celebrating my friends’ accomplishments. Concentrating on that thought made sure that even with everything that was going on with us we had a blast having dinner with everyone. I kind of felt sorry for our poor waitress…probably her bosses should have sent her with backup. But her service was damn good considering that it was just one of her and like twenty of us. Since we’d all been out late the night before, everyone was glad to call it a night immediately after dinner. Granted for everyone else, that meant going to bed or getting some ‘quality time’ in with their respective love one or ones. For Sam, Puck and me, it meant basically ‘all hands on Skype’ while we worked with Uncle Ethan, Mr. Antwan, Deborah and one of the Warner legal team to hammer out a ‘personal’ press release from KAMA. It took us three hours to get a workable statement. Primarily because between the seven of us, six of us wanted to handle it three different ways. The Warner guy stayed out of the main thrust of the argument, just jumping in to tell us what we could and couldn’t say.

Both Deborah and I wanted to use the opportunity to educate and to teach others about tolerance and polyamory and love. Puck and Uncle Ethan both felt that it was a great opportunity to make a few pointed comments about the hypocrisy of Limbaugh and Gingrich and their ilk. All those people who claim to be the only proponents of Christianity or family values or whatever while having three or more marriages under their belts. Those people who though that ‘thou shalt not commit adultery’ applied to everyone but them. They wanted it pointed out that while those people claimed that they only had one spouse at a time, in most cases they didn’t necessarily wait for their previous spouse to leave them before moving on to the next one. Even when said ‘previous spouse’ was terminally ill. Sam and Mr. Antwan were completely fed up; they basically just wanted to say fuck you to the whole world. But in Sam’s defense, he’d seen an interview with one of his dad’s relatives and it had clearly shown why Sander and Gabby kept their children separated from Sand’s relatives. Antwan understood that probably better than either Puck or I could.

We managed to cull out something that pretty well did all three while appeasing the legal eagle too without any of the expletives that Sam and Noah were throwing around all over the place. Finally Sam and Noah were able to get some rest. Thursday they had their last finals. Despite not getting a whole lot of sleep the last couple of nights, I woke up with them. I worked out…but that didn’t clear my head enough, so I cleaned our bedroom and did our laundry. Then I gave all the bathrooms, not just ours…but all the bathrooms on our side of the duplex not locked behind Kurt and Blaine’s bedroom door, a deep cleaning, even going so far as to scrub the grout with a cheap toothbrush we kept just for that purpose. That didn’t take as much time as I was expecting it too…it also didn’t burn through as much of my inner anger as I had hoped either. So I moved onto the kitchen. By the time I got that Martha Stewart clean, I was starting to feel a little better. I looked around, trying to find something else to clean to rid myself of the anger and betrayal I was feeling but as I was contemplating getting out the vacuum cleaner, Mom texted me and told me to turn on the TV to CNN.

I was shocked to see that one of their journalists had already made the connection between Uncle Bryant and me and asked him about KAMA and our commitment video. You could tell that he’d been evading her questions, but with that one he stopped and looked dead into the camera. “Mercedes is my niece. I love her very much and have since the day my little sister told me that she was on the way. I think she is amazingly talented, smart, and beautiful. I have met both of her young men and known them for the better part of the last two years. Both of them treat her with all the love and respect an uncle could hope for ask for. They have never hidden their relationship because they respect it too much. They have nothing to hide. I am quite proud of all of them or how they are handling their studies, their career and this situation. I refuse to hear an ill word against them.” He looked back at the reporter. “Now if you will excuse me, I’m going to be late for a meeting.”

“Just one more question, sir.” He looked at her with a glare. “What do you say to Samuel Saia’s comments that your constituents should rally against you because your support of your niece exhibits a lack of moral fiber.”

Uncle Bryant’s smile became cold, predatory. “I say that if supporting and loving my family loses me anyone’s support then I neither wanted nor needed it in the first place. Long after I’ve run my last race and before I ever entered politics, Mercedes has been one of the best nieces a man could ever have. No matter whether I’m ever reelected or not, family is the most important thing. To all those pseudo family rights blowhards, I am New Jersey. I chose to become just as Jersey as any native born son of the state. Come at me…fine, but try to harm my family, by word or deed, and you will not like the results.” With that he turned and walked away before old girl could get in another question.

I hit Moma back. “Kinda loving your brother right now.”

She sent back. “Don’t tell me; tell him, but me too.”

So I called and left him a long love and gratitude filled thank you voicemail. However, seeing Uncle Bryant’s reaction made me even more curious about Sam’s relative’s reaction. Google was not my friend that day. I found the clip quickly, though ultimately I kind of wished that it hadn’t. I’d made the assumption that the ‘mouth breather of a cousin’ Sam had mentioned was like one of his dad’s cousin or even one of his granddad’s someone too old to know better. But Chadwick Evans looked like he was only a little older then Kevon. He actually shared a few of Sam’s features though not enough to make him handsome. He didn’t have Sam’s lush, pink lips and his eyes were smaller and squinter. He looked kind of mean.

The news caster had apparently done one of those ‘new rockstar has ties to the local community’ stories earlier in the month; which to be honest had probably been a part of Christophe and the press team’s plan of action for getting us recognition. Unfortunately Rachel’s little tantrum had turned some of that building momentum against us. Chadwick’s comments were full of pejorative language and just vitriol. He pretty much hated everything about Sam; the fact that he wasn’t in contact with that side of the family, the fact that I was black, and thick, and had dark skin, the fact that Puck was Jewish. He actually looked sick to his stomach when he talked about the video. My rage returned with a vengeance, so I dusted everything that could possibly have a speck of dust on it. When that wasn’t enough, I vacuumed the downstairs, and the stairs themselves. I was still pretty pissed off so I decided to do up a big dinner for the whole house, it wasn’t a bad idea since everyone other than Sam, Noah and I would be leaving the next morning.

I was just getting going in good in the kitchen, pulling out all the ingredients to make homemade chicken pot pies and a lemon pound cake, when Kurt, Carole, Burt and Finn got back from their sight-seeing. As I started separating the chicken meat from the skin and bones, Kurt and Carole washed up and joined me at the counter. Well so did Burt and Finn, but really they sat at the stools and cut a little bit of veggies and such. While Kurt handled making the pie crust, Carole took over the cake and I worked on making the thick, rich and creamy chicken and vegetable chowder that comprised the pot pie insides. “You okay, Lil Mercy?” Papa Burt asked once we’d gotten a rhythm established. “This place looks clean enough that you don’t even need a dining table anymore.”

I shrugged, but answered honestly anyway. “I’m still having rage issues. I just don’t get it. I don’t think about Rachel anymore. I…she is pretty much a non-entity to me. Why does she do shit like this? We weren’t doing anything to her.”

Finn shook his head. “That’s exactly why she is doing it. You weren’t thinking about her at all. She wasn’t getting any attention. Rachel cannot handle that we’re all living our lives without her. The fact that you’re not just living your life not caring at all about her and what she is doing but excelling beyond she could ever hope or dream to achieve…it is running her crazy. As far as I can tell from conversations with my counselor…that’s gonna be a pretty typical reaction of someone with NPD…because somewhere deep inside, she knows that you’re the one who has the level of talent she believes that only she has. She has to punish you for being as good as or better than her. At least in her mind she does.”

“You know…I want to feel bad for her, really I do…and maybe I used to…but the more I hear about her ‘condition’,” Kurt said with the required air quotes, “the more it sounds like an excuse some p-sy-hrink came up with to excuse poor behavior.”

Burt shook his head. “I was feeling that way too. Then last month while I was waiting at the doctor’s office for my quarterly stress test, I happened to see an article in Psychology Today about NPD. There is a real genetic basis for it. They have isolated the gene and everything. Apparently if you have one parent with the trait then it probably won’t actually manifest…you’d be like your parent, just another carrier of trait. But if you’re like Rachel, then you’re destined to fall somewhere on the…they call it a spectrum. It ranges from borderline personality disorder to malignant personality disorder. Believe it or not, she may actually not have gotten bad enough to be considered malignant.”

“She still went too far this time.” Kurt grumbled.

None of us disagreed, but we tabled the subject when Brittany joined us in the kitchen. I’d actually texted her before I started pulling out my ingredients to have her bring me all the small to medium ceramic ramekins and bowls they had. I had eight but I needed twice that amount to have enough to make individual pot pies for everyone. Brittany had taken Rachel’s actions very hard. So we weren’t gonna mention it around her. She was really, really confident though that the twerp wouldn’t get what she wanted. To be honest I took comfort in that. I was pretty sure that Brittany’s lack of measurable intelligence was because she was like the real life Luna Lovegood. Kurt and I carefully placed pie crusts in each ceramic dish then I filled them first to the halfway point with sautéed chicken meat, peas, carrots, corn, diced green beans and baby lima beans. Then I ladled in the rich creamy sauce. To make the sauce, I’d boiled chicken stock with the bones and skin I’d cut away to cook the meat for the pot pies. Once that had boiled down until the remnants of chicken meat came off the bones, I’d strained it before bringing it back up to a boil adding just a touch of marsala wine and a whole lot of whole whipping cream along with just enough roué to bind it together and make sure it would thicken correctly in the oven. As soon as I did that, Kurt came behind me and place at crust topper on each. Working together we pinched the bottom and top crusts sealed, making them all pretty and scalloped. After giving them an egg wash to make sure that they baked up golden brown, we cut two or three slits in the top crust, put them on baking sheets and slid them into the pre-heated oven to bake. Once that was all taken care of, I was shooed up to my room to relax. Carole said that she was going to make an Asian chopped Kale salad with edamame, carrots, and avocado. She’d seen the recipe in a magazine she’d read on the plane, and since we had all the veggies for it, she was determined to give it a try. It would be a good, healthy side dish or an alternative if someone wanted something vegetarian.

I climbed the stairs to our bedroom thinking that I would run a bath. But when I got there I realized that Sam and Noah would be home pretty soon. The thought barely finished running through my mind when the bedroom door came back opened and closed hard. Sam was looking like I’d felt most of the day. “Get naked.” He growled. I guess that I wasn’t moving fast enough for him because the next thing I knew, I was flat on my back on our bed, my shirt had been ripped down the front and Sam’s hands made short work of killing one of my comfy soft bras too. Sam’s kisses were damn near bruising in their intensity. His fingers cruelly pinching and twisting my nipples and I reveled in the violence of his actions. All day I’d needed to hit something, well fucking was apparently the only alternative that would fill that need. “I’m gonna fuck you, Mercy. It’s gonna be hard and fast. I’m not even sure that I can take the time to get you ready.”

“Shut up and fuck me already, Sam.” I growled back. I needed to be fucked every bit as much as he needed to fuck me. 

Anything he might have come back with was cut off but the sound of ripping leggings and our missing love joining us. “Oh, good…Cede’s mostly naked already.” Puck smirked as he shed his clothes. “I either need to fuck the shit out of her or go back to campus and punch some paps.”

Before I could ask what he meant, my mouth was full of his tongue and my pussy was full of Sam’s cock. From there it was a wild, frenzied exchange of passion, lust, love and desire. For the following hour or so, I was filled constantly. I used my teeth locked into the flesh of their shoulders and chests to quiet my screams of animalistic pleasure. My nails racked down the skin of their backs and arms. But even with the overall ‘violence’ of our lovemaking, I could feel the rage and anger and hurt and betrayal flowing out of me and Noah and Sam refilling me with love and happiness and purpose and joy. We probably would have lay there basking in the afterglow for a while, but almost in concert our stomachs let out three loud growls. After a less frenetic quickie in the shower, we threw on some lounging clothes, I gathered up the tattered remains of my earlier outfit and we headed downstairs for dinner.

Everyone else had already assembled in the dining room. Seth had even gotten there already. Thank God I always planned for him. Sometimes it meant leftover…but not often. “You guys have, like, a massive amount of hickeys on you.” Seth said in lue of hello. “It’s kind of a good look for you. But why hickey Mercedes on the cheek, that’s gonna be hard to cover.”

Kurt rolled his eyes. “Amazingly enough, Cedes is rather practiced at covering love bites on that particular expanse of skin.”

“Good thing too. They are supposed to be at Warner at the ass crack of dawn for that meeting.” Santana reminds us. Who needs a manager or an admin when you have a Santana.

“We know Tana.” Puck shoots back, taking the words right out of my mouth. “What time is everyone else heading to the airport?” he turned the subject to travel plans.

“Well some minor miracle has all of us heading to Lima on the same flight.” Artie smiled knowingly. He knew exactly what Puck was trying to do and he’d stepped up and in for his bro. “Then again it could be less of a miracle and more of how many flights are really going to Columbus Ohio from LaGuardia on any given day.”

“Probably more than are going to Columbia, South Carolina.” Jamie laughed. “I guess I could have flown into Atlanta and caught a connecting flight…but the last time I tried that I flew into one gate and flew out of another one that felt like it was about seven states away.”

Ben smiled over at Ryan and Seth. “We’re lucky there are like a million choices for flights into SEA-TAC and LAX. Hey Jon, are you going down to your grandmother’s or out to your dad’s?”

“I’m taking the train down to Baltimore. Grandma and my Aunt Day are hosting Christmas at Grandma’s house since Dad refuses to let Uncle Will into his house. Dad still wanted me to fly to Sacramento, then back to the east coast with them and back again only to fly back to school from Cali. Thankfully Grandma, Aunt Lissa and Aunt Day all told him he was being stupid and that was too much flying for no damn reason.”

“What about your mom?” Sam asked confused.

“Mom lets Dad control everything. She grew up in one of those super religious sects down in Utah, so for her Dad is pretty permissive.” Jon said with a shrug as if he was completely used to it. “Don’t get me wrong, she’s a great mom…just sometimes she forgets that it isn’t nineteen fifty something and that she is allowed to have an opinion. Anyway, enough of my sick, sad world, what’s you guys meeting about?”

I fielded that one, despite the hoarse raspiness of my voice. “We’re supposed to film two videos over the break. Tomorrow we’re gonna storyboard them and probably figure out how to move forward from the scandal.” We passed around the salad that Carole had whipped up for us. It tasted like summer and was probably a little more filling than she thought it was going to be. We all loved it, and Kurt and I both demanded that she leave us a copy of the magazine recipe. Of course as soon as I mentioned that we’d be planning out our videos, the dinner chatter quickly turned to talking about the best music video concepts any of us had ever seen. Carole and Burt both agreed that nothing topped ‘Thriller’. To which Mike and Artie launched into a major campaign to convince the table that ‘Scream’ had in fact done so. Seth and Jamison were unconvinced by either argument feeling that ‘Beat It’ was far more ground breaking and therefore better. Kurt chimed in that the very simple ‘Single Ladies’ was an epic concept in its simplicity. He was shot down so fast that his head spun. Sam tossed in Johnny Cash’s ‘Hurt’ video like a grenade and just sat back and watched as everyone started arguing about how it was pretty damn good, but not better than their particular choice…then just as that settled down Santana did the same thing with Madonna’s ‘Like a Prayer’. Puck advocated long and loud for Red Hot Chili Peppers ‘Give It Away Now.’ Ryan agreed, though he was the one to mention the Police’s ‘Every Breath You Take’ should be in the running. Blaine thought it should go to either Janet Jackson for ‘Rhythm Nation’ or to Prince for ‘When Doves Cry’. When things seemed to be winding down again, Jon laughed, “I cannot believe that no one has mentioned ‘Waterfalls’. Mercedes…Jamie…you two know that you’re wrong for leaving that one out.”

I shrugged. “See the thing about TLC is that, for the most part, you can’t pick one of their videos without picking all of them ‘Unpretty’ was just as influential as ‘Waterfalls’, ‘No Scrubs’ was just as visually groundbreaking for the time as ‘Dear Lie’ was fashion forward. See in reality the most visionary and fantastic video concepts aren’t a song by song/video by video type deal. We should really just be talking about which artists are known for their consistently dominating music videos. Michael Jackson…God rest his soul…TLC, God rest Left Eye’s soul too, Missy Elliot, Madonna, Chili Peppers even Guns N Roses were pretty damn good for the time period and genre.”

“Oh sure, ruin a fun argument with logic.” Ben spouted off.

“I can toss some more pee on your parade, too. We’re not going to be doing anything that hugely major because we’re not gonna end up like poor TLC, in hock to our label until we’re old and gray.” I shot back licking my tongue out at him for good measure.

Ryan spoke up quietly. “If whatever you guys do come up with is even half as good as this chicken pot pie…it’s gonna be video of the year for sure. I don’t know if I knew that you could make pot pies at home.”

“Sexy Mama, these are ‘mazing.” Puck agreed. He and Ryan exchanged a long telling look. They shared more than any of the others…the way they had grown up in similar homes. The two of them were probably the most familiar with the fifty cent variety of pot pies available at any big box or grocery store. Finn had missed out on them, only having had one at Puck’s house once. Carole had always left Finn with babysitters and casseroles or the more expensive hungry man microwave dinners. But there were times when money was so tight that Puck was the only babysitter that Becah could afford and working double shifts to try to keep her head above water, she’d not had the time to make and freeze casseroles. She had been pretty amazing at hiding their financial straits from her mother and older brother.

“So Puck, Sam…what set you two off this afternoon? You were pretty much over it when we headed out this morning.” Blaine asked after everyone finished complimenting the cooks.

Sam rolled his eyes. “TMZ and a bunch of various and a sundry papz have figured out where we go to school. My guess is that they tried Columbia first. We weren’t on campus there but somehow, some way they tracked us to Juilliard. They were waiting on us when we got out of our last exam. Total ambush. TMZ was about the best of one hell of a bad bunch. Their rep was a skinny black guy who just asked how you were doing and where you were. That seemed to set the rest off. They started shouting that you’d left us because of all the drama and the trauma.”

“So we answered the little muthafucker from TMZ, sorry Ms. Carole, Just said that you were a little upset still that the world had seen our private moment and that the whole world was now sticking its collective noses into our personal business.” Puck continued.

“That jerk though that he was funny. He apologized, completely insincerely, then pointed out that we wanted to be famous and this was all part and parcel of our career choice. So Puck told him that making great music that people would love for years to come was our career choice and being a bottom feeding parasite on the ass of humanity was theirs.” Sam chuckled.

Puck smirked. “Gotta give the dude credit, he just rolled with it. Said that he was at least a little better than the rest of the dicks out there…he was feeding on buttcheek while they were feeding straight on the asshole.” He shook his head in consternation. “Thing is he was telling the truth. At least he didn’t follow us once he had his soundbite. The rest of those jackasses followed us on the train so much that we had to change trains three times to get rid of all of them…stupid leeches. They actually thought we were stupid enough to let them follow us home.”

“Good thing the property is in the name of the incorporation rather than your names.” Burt commented. “They won’t be able to find you through any of the public records.”

“Can we keep it that was even after we can afford to take over the mortgage?” I asked thoughtfully.

“I don’t see why not. Your lawyer and accountant are already a part of the group. I’m sure they can figure out a way to do it.” Burt answered. 

We changed to more normal subjects for dinner conversations after that talking about everyone’s plans for over the break. After dinner was eaten, Ben, Seth, Jamie and Blaine took care of the after dinner cleanup. Then we all decided to veg out in the family room and pull up all the videos we’d talked about earlier. We had a blast. Santana, Artie and Brittany managed to stick it out for almost an hour before they mumbled some excuse, like we didn’t know they were just going to get their freak on one last night before they had to sleep separately for a month. Then Seth got a phone call from Summer so he dipped out to take that. Ryan didn’t stay too long after that. He’d grown bored. He wasn’t as huge into music as most of us and since Sam and Puck were too busy trying to hid the fact that they were surreptitiously getting me hot and bothered to chat with him enough to keep him with us. Jamie and Jon had both still needed to pack so they left soon after Tana and her crew had disappeared. To be honest, we probably needed to pack ourselves. I said as much to the guys and they blushed bashfully.

We said good night to everyone. We took a second to hug and say our goodbyes to the gang. We told Ben to be safe and give Socks and Sam our Christmas well wishes. We told Kurt, Blaine, Finn, Burt and Carole that we’d see them soon as we got settled when we were home. Packing was actually a lot more straight forward than it probably could have been. We’d already taken care of almost all of our Christmas shopping online and had everything delivered to Mom and Dad’s, or George’s or Becah’s. Not to mention that we’d be home with access to a washer and dryer. We just needed to pack enough clothes, shoes and sundries for two weeks. We’d each have one piece of large checked luggage, one carry on each, the guitars and one shared big ass checked bag that would contain our dress clothes on it on the way home, but it was mainly gonna serve as a way to bring home our Christmas gifts. We needed to keep it to a manageable level so that we could move quickly through the crowds.

Once we’d finished that chore, we laid out something comfortable but business causal for our meeting the next day. I was too sore to make love for real again…so Sam and Noah made love to each other while I watched then they used their hands and mouths to send me into orbit again. By the time the boys grabbed a quick wash up and came back to bed I was barely awake. I fell asleep sandwiched between them; right where I belonged…no matter what anyone else thought.

 

Video Killed the Radio Star (The Buggles)  
Sam PoV

Despite having a really full day that Thursday, we’d still made it to bed at a decent time so it wasn’t that hard to get up showered, dressed and out the door at a reasonable time the next morning. Since it was almost Christmas and therefore cold as hell in New York, we were all bundled up. Mercy was wearing a pretty, burgundy sweater dress that had a wide belt which cinched in her waist and matched the tall black leather boots she pulled on over the tights and black leggings she’d donned to protect her beautiful legs from the cold. Puck had dug out a navy blue sweater Moma Dani had given him last winter…just because she saw it and thought it would look nice on him. She was right. Seeing him in that sweater made me want to be late to the meeting. Noah had put on a pair of navy ‘dress; cargos with it and a lighter blue polo under it. For shoes he’d grabbed his favorite black motorcycle boots so I knew that meant he would be wearing his leather moto jacket rather than his trench.

I looked down at my own business casual look and realized that I really could have been auditioning for the roll of Steven Grant Rogers if it hadn’t already been cast. My khakis were pleat front in the darker beige hue preferred by Captain America in the movies. I’d donned some of my nicer Chuck Taylors, green to match the color of the crew neck sweater I’d pulled on over my basic white dress shirt. I grabbed my black wool blend peacoat and made sure that Mercy had both Noah and my tablets with her iPad in her burgundy Marc Jacobs tote. We were all hella serious about the meeting. We had ideas and wanted to be full, active parts if the discussion. Mercedes was so serious that she was actually bringing her laptop too. It was still dark when we headed out. It was a good thing that we’d said all out goodbyes the night before because the house would be totally empty when we got home.

We took the subway to the Warner offices and walked past a few papz that were bold enough to camp out there. Our heads were held high and while we weren’t overt with our affection but it was easy for any one with eyes to see that we were solidly together. The receptionist knew us without our even saying anything this time. She looked up and smiled, “Hello Mercedes, Sam and Noah. Ms. Jergens will be down in a minute. I buzzed her as soon as the paparazzi started going nuts.” She looked around a little then lowered her voice. “I just wanted to day that I though the video was really adorable. I hope that you guys show those naysayers that real love is out there even if it doesn’t look exactly like what all those holier than thou types think it should look like.”

“Thank you Amy.” Mercedes said with one of her beautiful smiles. I wondered for a second how on earth she knew the woman’s name, before I saw a small plaque on the desk.

Deborah came out of the elevator bank greeting us with a harried smile. “We have tons to get done today and Mr. Cohen wants to see you there first. By the time he is finished talking with you, breakfast should be here. We ordered from Einstein Brothers, if that’s okay?” We nodded as we hurried to keep pace with her long strides. As we rode up to the offices, Deborah gave us an overview on what we were going to be talking about once we got back down to the conference room.

She ushered us into Mr. Cohen’s office and for just a second I worried that we were going to get reamed out for the current predicament. But I should have known better. “Mercedes, Sam. Noah thanks for agreeing to seem me this morning. I’m sorry that this has happened to you. But I have to admit the only way it could have happened at a better time is if it had happened right before your record drops in the spring.” 

We all looked at each other. “Glad something good came out of it.” I muttered.

“Yeah, but what good came of all this?” Puck asked looking as confused as I felt.

Lyor Cohen looked happily evil. “The debut single for the soundtrack, ‘Who You Are’, hit over a hundred thousand on the over nights, by the end of the first week its sales were at five hundred and twenty thousand plus…we pulled the numbers last night to see the exact effect the current situation had on the sales…when we look at all methods of digital purchase, that single alone is at over seven million units sold. The video is at almost fifteen million views and seventy nine percent liked. The soundtrack over all is at ten. Your single ‘The Fighter’ had a respectable first week of digital sales at over four hundred and fifty thousand downloads. We were quite happy with that. It was, to be honest, higher than we really expected. Now the single is number three on the digital charts behind ‘Royals’ and Mercedes and Jill’s duet. The first week numbers had us roll forward ‘The Fighter’ video shoot and asking that you go forward with the video shoot for ‘ColorBlind’ as well.”

“Wait, I thought that ‘Rescue Me’ was going to be the first single off of Necessity?” Mercedes spoke up.

Mr. Cohen smiled. “Given everything that has transpired, we think that a love song would be the best way to follow the soundtrack songs. Besides of the songs from the Halloween concert that have been posted on YouTube, it has the most number of views and the highest views to likes ratio.”

“Okay,” I said with a smile. “So need a concept for ‘ColorBlind’ instead of ‘Rescue Me’…by the end of the elevator ride down three flights…we can do that.”

Our boss laughed and rubbed his hands together. “You guys will be fine. You don’t have to do it alone. Deborah, Anika and a few other people are waiting on you downstairs who can help you with getting your music to people.” He saw us to the elevator and we headed down to the meeting room.

Mr. Cohen must have decided that we’d been around the office enough times that we could find our way ourselves. And I guess it was true, because Puck led us unerringly to the conference room we’d met Anika and Christophe in. waiting on us there we found Deborah, Anika, two other women and a tall thin, visibly British man.

Deborah took control of the introductions. “Mercedes Jones, Noah Puckerman, Sam Evans, please let me introduce Denise Lee; she will help us with storyboarding and determining our casting needs.” Ms. Lee was an older woman, older than the Moms…maybe even older than Bubbie Ruth, but younger than Grandma Mae. She was short too. I think she may have even had to look up at Mercedes she was so short. She was dressed in all black, but the outfit looked classic and yet contemporary at the same time. Other than the fact that her hair was a stock of fiery red curls not a sleek black bob, she kind of reminded me of Edna Mole from the Incredibles. But I didn’t say that out loud. “Next to her is Valerie Willthorne. Valerie is here to help us developing the concept and to begin the process of ironing out what is feasible wardrobe wise from what isn’t.” Ms. Willthorne was a tall and slender blonde woman who looked like she was just a little over thirty…she was also looking at Mercedes like she was the last piece of cheesecake in Eileen’s. “And last but not least the gentleman is Mr. Nick Knight director of Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ and Kanye West’s ‘Black SkkkinnnHeads’.”

“Whoa, I’m surprised to see you out and about during the day, Mr. Knight.” I blurted out despite the fact that he looked nothing like Geraint Wyn Davies. “Do you drive a sixty two caddy too?”

“Did you know that model really does have the biggest trunk of all modern vehicles?” The tall, thin, so white you knew he was British just by looking at him, man stopped and gave me an assessing look. “There is no way you are old enough to know about that show.”

“Trust and believe that if it is obscure sci-fi or fantasy…he knows. His dad weaned him on X-Files and Star Trek: the Next Generation.” Puck teased.

“Besides, that show was awesome. Detective Nicholas Knight of the Toronto Police Department was Angel before Angel was well Angel.” I defended staunchly. “Oooh for our video, we could do Puck as Angel and me as Nick and have a ‘Remorseful Vampire’ grudge match.”

“You can’t do that…there is no way you can have a ‘Remorseful Vampire’ grudge match without including Louis from Anne Rice...and I don’t look anything at all like Brad Pitt.” Mercy pointed out.

“Fine…but that’s it. Cause those twinkling bastards do not exist in my frame of reference.” I shot back.

Deborah, Ms. Lee and Ms. Willthorne all agreed heartily. “While I love the enthusiasm, I have to say that we probably should table that one.” Mr. Knight chuckled. We all took seats around one end of the large conference table. We grabbed bagels and schmere, coffee and juice and knuckled down to work. It seemed that by unspoken agreement, we were working on ‘The Fighter’ video first. “Okay, do we want to go subtle yet on topic, subtle and abstract, overtly on topic or overtly abstract?”

“I don’t know what most of what you just said means…” I told him honestly. “I mean, I get the meaning of the individual words, but I guess I’m not getting the context.”

Thankfully Deborah realized that the question really had been framed for someone like Gaga or Kanye, someone who’d been in the business for more than a hot minute. “Well, I can share with you the concept I came up with. I consider it subtly overt…meaning that lots of people will feel like it is completely on topic and others just won’t get it. What I’d like to do is see you guys in the halls of your old school. You’d make it look like a typical day of what did you call them, ‘Slushie facials’ and being tossed into garbage cans….Really shine a light on what is going on in too many of our schools. Maybe even set up a scene where Mercedes is in her room looking at her computer and dealing with cyber bullying, really make it something so kids will identify with you.”

“Oh, I guess that is good, but Puck and I came up with an idea. All three of us could be in a gym, like Mighty Mick’s gym from Rocky. We can be you know hitting the heavy bags and jumping rope…but not Mercy…she can’t really jump rope anymore without hurting herself. She learned that when she was trying to teach Stacey and Sarah how to double Dutch. Anyway…we can either look like we’re getting ready for a fight, or sparring, or something.”

“Or, rather than actually fighting, maybe we can each be dressed as fighters going to the ring. You know that long hallway walk from the locker rooms to the gym.” Puck chimed in.

“That could be good.” Ms. Willthorn said looking up. “We could have you each singing into an old school interviewer’s mic.” She started making notes on her iPad. “You know what though instead of you entering an arena and going into a boxing ring, you should enter a regular looking high school gym…bring in Jergens’ concept a bit as well, we can set up a boxing ring in the center.”

“A metaphor that transfers the literal representation of them as fighters into something more abstract. They aren’t fighting each other or their home town or their past, instead they are fighting to make it out of childhood and into adulthood.” Mercy summarized the thought process. “It’s perfect except, I don’t see how I fit in which would be fine if we were talking about ‘Rescue Me’ where I’m mainly background vocals. But this one is three part harmony.”

“I bet you would make a sexy as hell reporter.” Puck smiled. “Oh hell yeah, put you in a suit and one of those keyhole dress shirts with a tie really show off your tatas.”

I nodded. “You could be the one holding the mic for me and Puck and then when we’re in the ring, you can be dressed as s sexy referee.”

“You know…rather than go with ‘Rocky’; we could go with ‘The Wrestler’.” Nick said thoughtfully. “If we go with the wrestling concept, they often do interviews where the two combatants are interviewed at the same time by the same interviewer. We could do the walking to the ring shots for Sam and Puck’s alternating verses and the three of you in an interview scene for the harmony portions.”

Ms. Lee looked up from her pad. “Okay, does anyone have another concept that is fleshed out enough to put forward?”

Mercedes looked up. “I think that my concept is something that could stand alone, but it would work even better at the end of either of the two that are on the table. Kind of a ‘this is how good better can be’ for the first one and a big F you for the second one. We’re a year out from being bullied and slushied and dumped on…well more for me than Sam or Puck, so we show them a glammed up KAMA at the end performing to a large crowd.”

Ms. Willthorne chuckled. “I love that. It really is especially important to show that at the end of Deborah’s proposal.”

“I agree.” Deborah chimed in. “I really like that. Maybe we can rent out a club or something. Granted it would need to be a teen club, but there has to be one somewhere nearby, maybe Dayton.”

“Lima actually does have an eighteen and under club, Club Exxcess…we have a pretty good relationship with the management. Probably that won’t cost us very much at all.” I told them truthfully.

Nick was making notes on both of the two ideas. “You came from a show choir right…would they want to act as extras?”

“We couldn’t pay them; anything more than dinner and they’d lose their ability to compete.” I told them.

“That would actually really help our budget.” Deborah chimed in. for the school. “We’ll need at least ten to fifteen faces, the people who will be the bullies, the people who might even have a line or something.”

“We might be able to help with that too. A couple of our friends were major bullying assholes before they learned the era of their ways, they and the rest of our clique will all be in Lima for their winter breaks too.” I pointed out. Azimio could always use the money and I’m sure that Dave wouldn’t mind a little extra spending money.

“I bet if we work with Amir and Dougie, they will let us have the club for the night for free as long as we pay for the catering and let them keep all the proceeds from the bracelet and food sales.” Puck pointed out.

Mercedes laughed. “They would love that. They’d make all the money from the night’s door, the food and beverages and get some pretty damn good publicity.”

I looked around really thinking about what was being proposed. The more I thought about it the more I realized that I didn’t really like the idea all that much. “Okay, I’m just gonna say this. We just got out of McKinley…I do not want to be one of those people who keeps popping back up at their old high school all the time. Besides, Mercy, do you really want to relive that stuff?”

She looked thoughtful for a second. “You know, I don’t mind…even if it does dredge up some bad memories, what if it really helps some kid going through hell everyday at their own school? Isn’t that part of what we said we wanted to do with our careers, with our fame…be a beacon?”

I guess Anika saw the look on my face. I didn’t give a damn about being a beacon, if it upset Mercedes I didn’t think it was worth doing. She also could tell that Mercedes would like that as much as she would like some stranger talking over her food. “Why don’t we look through the cost associated with each concept…look at doing it in Lima versus Chicago as originally planned…and we can move forward from there?” she suggested, totally defusing the mounting tension.

Ms. Lee pressed a button and a screen descended from the horizontal bar in the ceiling. She tapped something on her laptop and a spreadsheet was projected onto the screen. “Extras will run us a hundred to a hundred and fifty a head per day. Two fifty to three hundred for the actors with lines.”

“Umm excuse me, but how are we going to get the extras?” Mercedes asked curiously.

“We’ll go through an agency probably one out of Chicago so that we can get a nice large pool from the same agency.” Ms. Willthorne explained.

“Oooh can we use the Gray Talent Group? There is a lady there…Audrey something…Morgan maybe. She was a judge for Regionals last year and she was one of the people I auditioned in front of for the role of Lillian. Every time she has been involved in my day something great has happened.” Mercy told them all with a grin. “I’d love to have her involved in the video too. Plus, if they work on commission…couldn’t hurt to throw some business her way.”

Ms. Lee made a note in her file. “We can certainly look at Gray’s and see if they have the type of talent pool we need. Now, to me this shoot sounds like a two day shoot…or we could do it in a day but it would be a two batch shoot, we won’t want the same faces in both other than possibly the bullies. With careful planning and costume changes, we can probably get away with getting just about five hundred, and let the real students at McKinley fill the rest of the club. Probably for free. Which puts our casting budget at eighty thousand, now that being said, if we can get the school for less than ten and keep our catering budget under control, we can stay under two hundred to two hundred and fifty thousand.”

Good lord that is a whole lot of money. “Whoa.” Noah and I groaned simultaneously.

“Don’t worry; based on your contract, you’re only responsible for ten percent, twenty-five thousand dollars worst case scenario.” Deborah said in what I’m sure she thought was a soothing tone.

Puck, Mercy and I exchanged a look. We’d used most of our budget paying for our studio time. I watched as Mercedes started to chew her lower lip, Noah started drumming a beat on the table, only then did I realize that my leg was shaking nervously. “We do don’t have…”

Deborah rolled her eyes. But it was Anika who spoke up. “I thought that Mr. Cohen told you about your returns.”

I nodded. “He told us that the numbers had been a lot better than they though on the first week and like through the roof now.” I summarized.

“Yeah, and you get paid sixty five cent every time someone pays to download your song on Rhapsody, iHeartRadio or Spotify and sixty cents for every iTunes download. And that isn’t even taking into account the song writing credit residuals from ‘The Fighter’. Since you won’t get any of that until just before we film; we can just take your portion of the two videos out before we deposit the money.” Deborah said with a smile.

“Oh, okay then.” Mercedes said way more calmly than I felt. I personally wanted to stand up and do a damn dance. I didn’t know how much that was without getting out a calculator, but I knew it meant a whole lot of money.

“So what are we looking at for the second concept?” Puck asked quietly. We all mentally tabled the ‘whoa did we really make as much as she just said we made’ discussion for later.

Ms. Lee pulled up a second tab on the same worksheet. The metrics already in place were the same as the first sheet, but she put in a different series of numbers. “Well, first of all, that will definitely be a Chicago shoot. But for casting, we’d only need twenty to fifty extras. That pulls the casting budget down to seventy five hundred dollars. However, it would increase the rest of the budgets across the board. This one would probably be around three hundred to three hundred fifty thousand.”

Ms. Willthorne nodded. “We’d need to supply costumes for all the extras for the second concept. The first we can just have them bring several outfits to choose from. That will put the wardrobe cost for the wrestling or boxing video three to four times as high as the one for the high school concept.”

Nick saw that we were trying to think everything through and make a final choice right in that moment, so he cleared his throat. “Why don’t we think about it for a while and get back to that decision later. We should take a bathroom break and stretch out. Give the big decision sometime to ruminate. The biggest decision we should handle right now is what we want to order in for lunch…I suggest sushi.”

“Sorry, I am genetically predisposed to not eating sushi.” I told him honestly.

He looked like he was tempted to ask how one can be genetically predisposed to not eating something, but wasn’t sure if he wanted to follow my line of thinking. Mercy laughed one of her infectious giggles. “Sorry, but like his father and his father’s father before him, Sam does prefer his seafood to be as southern as he is. You know beer battered and deep fried.”

“Hey, it doesn’t have to be beer battered…just regular batter is fine and you know I love Chinese seafood…shrimp stir-fry is one of the best things in the whole wide world.” I defended.

“Can we at least all agree on seafood?” Deborah said calmly. She knew from previous experience that we could argue about food forever.

Ms. Lee shrugged. “I’m not supposed to eat shellfish.” She smirked over at Puck. “He isn’t either.”

Puck grinned. “Unless it’s one of the high holidays, I never let that stop me.”

“Oh good, I do so hate to be being a bad Jew in front of good ones.” She chuckled. “I could definitely go for some shrimp. Sam has inspired me.”

“Why don’t we order from the Seafire Grill and send one of the interns down to pick it up?” Anika asked with a smile.

“Okay, but we have to order something for the poor schmuck, you’re sending into midtown Manhattan during lunch rush.” Puck said pointedly. “Do they have decent steaks? I want something that used to have a face.”

“See now you’ve done it. I was thinking I wanted seafood…but a steak sounds like it would be amazing.” Mercy groaned. “You know how impressionable I am when it comes to food.”

“You’re musically impressionable, food impressionable and there is very little we suggest in the bed room that you don’t hop all over.” I leaned close to her ear to tease. “What aren’t you impressionable about?”

Her elbow impacting me in the side was her only answer. She pulled up the menu even as Ms. Lee did the same on the projector. In no time we’d all decided what we were going to get. In their effort to create the perfect lunch surf and turf, Noah was ordering the sliced sirloin open faced sandwich with onions, Swiss, and served on a focaccia roll and Mercedes was getting the top loader lobster roll. Their plan was to cut each in half and share. I’d noticed that since I’d moved to New York, I was eating more like Mercedes and Noah and really just exercising to keep myself in the condition I preferred. Though I wasn’t exercising obsessively anymore either. Mom had said over Christmas that I was growing into a more manly shape because my shoulders were getting broader and my biceps were solid and growing. That had made me wonder if it was just a step in my body’s natural maturation or if my obsessive eating habits before had been holding me back from growing like I was supposed to. With that thought in my mind, I decided to go for what sounded best to me. I ordered the bone in NY strip steak, for some reason it was only then that we realized that we needed to order sides separately. I went with the lobster mac and cheese, while both of my lovers went with the herb fries. Ms. Willthorne took down everyone’s’ choices, then asked. “Am I the only one who wants an appetizer too? I’m starving.”

Mercedes sighed heavily. “Oh thank God.” Noah and I both gave her a surprised glance. She didn’t usually care about what she ordered. “Look, I’m good with my body but I cannot be the big girl in the room ordering more food than anyone else. That is not an attractive look. Can I add the jumbo lump crab cakes?”

Nick grinned. “I was doing the same thing. Only I was feeling self conscious about ordering more food than Sam and Puck. You two are both very buff guys. I’m tall and scrawny and my Mum swears I was born with a hollow leg. Put me down for the lobster bisque.”

I had been trying to avoid being the one to spend more than anyone else, but if everyone else was adding an appetizer than I could jump all over it. I added the Madagascar garlic prawns, and the calamari but that was for both me and Ms. Lee to share. Puck added the oysters Rockefeller. In the end we ended up with at least order of one of each of the appetizers. In fact the only one sticking with just their entrée, a chilled lobster salad which barely counted as an entree in the first place, was Anika. Then we remembered that we needed to pick out some food for whoever was going to have to go and get the order. As we weren’t really sure who it would be, and Deborah was fairly certain it would end up being two of them we ordered the SFG burger with everything on the side and an order of herb fries and a blackened chicken Caesar salad. Since we had to wait for the food to come and Mercy, Puck and I all wanted to see the full budgetary picture for both of the video concepts on the table, Ms. Lee and Ms. Willthorne worked together to get them all fleshed out.

It was kind of crazy all the stuff that went into the pre planning stage of the video making process. Like determining location and venue and what things they would have to rent and what things they could use contacts to bring to bear. It was really kind of awesome. They even did a second budget for the concept if we did boxing over wrestling. Boxing was the cheaper alternative, but it would mean less camera time for Mercedes and since she is KAMA to both me and Puck, no matter how much she disagrees, we both agreed that unless we could figure out how to change that. We’d leave the boxing one to the wayside and focus on deciding between the wrestling and the walk down memory lane.

Once that was complete, Ms. Lee sent it to all of our pads and Mr. Knight came over. “Okay, so now that we have the economics settled. Why don’t we look at the emotional, the visceral, reasons you would have for choosing or not choosing each option.”

“I want to have some fun,” I said honestly. “For me and Puck this is our first, ‘making a music video’ experience. I mean, ‘ColorBlind’ isn’t gonna be the most fun experience ever. It’s going to dredge up some pretty not happy memories all by itself.”

Puck agreed. “The only reason I’m leaning to the whole ‘walk down memory lane’ video concept is because it lends itself more towards adding shots to tie it back into the movie. It is a song from a soundtrack so we’re going to have to pull the two together somehow.”

“Oh yeah, I hadn’t thought about that.” I mumbled. “Too bad we can’t make both. That would be awesome.”

“Well, what you can always do is create a concept portfolio. Have the one you don’t use held back and if you write or record a song that it would be perfect for, you can use it then.” Ms. Willthorne suggested.

“Alright, now, tell me the story behind ‘ColorBlind’. Help me understand where your head space was when you wrote it.” Mr. Knight asked with a smile.

“Mercy wrote it.” I told him honestly. “Puck and I helped with building the music, but she wrote the lyrics.”

Mercedes patted my arm soothingly. I hate thinking about that time. I don’t like thinking about any of our fights, but that one sucked the absolute most. “Sam and Noah were having a communication problem. They were both feeling some resentment and having some issues, but they weren’t talking to each other about what was going on between them. On top of that, they weren’t just pulling away from each other, they were pulling away from me and the more they pulled back, the more it seemed like my world was getting darker and grayer.”

Mr. Knight looked thoughtful for a very long moment. Then he went totally into his zone. He grabbed a notepad, a real paper notepad, from some magical, extra dimensional pocket, and started literally sketching out his idea. “I want to start with Sam and Puck in workout apparel, we’ll need to get a choreographer and work out a physical demanding faux fight scene. Both of them fighting each other and pulling at Mercedes even as they push her away.” yeah we weren’t exactly present for him. It will start off in full color, leaching more and more not just color but color and light from the scene until at the end they are in three solo spots, the only color in the scene will be their skin.” The scratch of his pin against the paper was the only sound in the room as we all waited with baited breath for him to continue. “Two wardrobe changes, three full outfits. First outfit, something pretty and feminine for Mercedes, colorful…a maxi-dress maybe, diametrically opposed to the workout clothes for Puck and Sam. Change one takes Mercedes to something more severe in a shade of gray, the guys in something similar. Their surroundings are darker, more forbidding. Second change takes Mercedes to something completely outside her usual comfort zone… all black, maybe gothed all the way out, the guys in black slacks and shirts very, very dark gray. The three of them spread far apart in the same room, each in their own spotlight, the skin is the only thing not a shade of black or dark charcoal gray.”

Mercedes said quietly, “I’m really good with that one. That sounds amazing.”

There wasn’t a single voice of dissent. It didn’t take us any time at all to work through what we would need to make that happen. Heck Mercedes, Ms. Willthorne and Anika were totally ready to jump on wardrobe and costume design when a guy and a girl not too much older than us entered pushing a rolling cart filled with large, rectangular black take away boxes on the top shelf, plates, real ones, napkins and cutlery on the second shelf and a whole buttload of different drink choices in some ice buckets on the bottom. They set places down at the other end of the table which allowed us to leave everything set up. They seemed confused at the two extra place settings and boxes of food once everything had been set up…they even took the food from the to go boxes and plated it for us. “You two are free to join us, there is a burger with everything on the side for you Tony and Gina, we also got a chicken Caesar salad…or vice versa.” Deborah told them nicely. “Be sure to thank KAMA, they were determined that we provide lunch for whoever trudged into the cold to get our food.”

“Wow, that’s pretty awesome of you guys. Nice to know that I was defending good people on my twitter feed.” Gina smiled. “Thanks.”

Tony nodded shyly. “You guys are all kinds of cool. Umm, so are we to eat silently while the grown up talk or can I ask you some stuff?”

I shrugged. “I don’t care if you talk. In fact, we could probably use some input from our target demographic on which of the video concepts sounds coolest.” I told them as they plated their food and took seats near us. I almost geeked out at the thought of having a target demographic…but I kept it under control.

Puck and I sat in our usual position bracketing our lady. Once they completed their sandwich sharing, each sampled a bite of my steak and let me have a taste of their sandwiches, Puck turned to Tony and asked “so what is it you want to know?”

Tony shrugged and finished chewing the French fry he’d just popped into his mouth. “Oh, sorry…I just, I wanted to know how did you guys decide you could be open to something like this. I mean…I just. It’s something you’ve gotta open yourself up to. How did you know that this could work for you?”

Mercy smiled, “the same way that two people in a relationship open themselves up to the fear of being hurt, the fear of rejection. When you feel that connection, that sense of rightness, why would you not open yourself up to it…just because it isn’t between one man and one woman? Because it isn’t a couple. Because it isn’t what people say is correct, say is allowable. No. You love who you love. One day, when you find that connection, you make sure that you do whatever you need to do to nurture it, to care for it, to make it grow and last.”

“So you really think you guys are going to last?” Gina blurted out. I couldn’t put my finger on why, but something about the enthusiasm with which she asked that question bothered the hell out of me.

Puck gave her one of his quelling looks and nodded. “We don’t think it. We know we’re going to be together until we are all old and gray.”

“How can you be so sure?” She pressed. “The divorce statistics are bad enough for a traditional couple.”

“How can we be so sure, how can you be so sure that you are gonna graduate? Because you’re working for it. Because you are determined to get your paper. Yeah…the statistics are crap. But that doesn’t mean shit for us. People divorce for a whole host of reasons. Infidelity, never gonna happen. That whole growing apart…that’s a bullshit excuse. People choose to grow apart, because they aren’t willing to put in the work to grow together. We’re gonna grow together, we’re gonna live in each other’s pockets, live together, work together, be together and play together. Don’t feel worried about whether or now we’re gonna make it last, feel really fucking bad for anyone who tried to separate us.”

Gina exchanged a look with Tony. “Okay…I guess that you guys are going to make it. Sorry I impugned your honor.” She teased. “So tell us about the concepts you need us to help you decide between.”

It didn’t take us long to go through the different concepts on the table. I wasn’t sure why, but I was also all kinds of annoyed by how quickly Gina jumped all over the boxing concept, to the exclusion of all others. “If you really feel like you have to obviously bring in the movie, as you walk from the locker room to the ring, just have movie stills on the walls as posters.” It bothered me that she didn’t seem to care that Mercedes would pretty much be left out of the video if we used that concept. However, while the female intern was focused what had become my least favorite concept, I liked the wrestling idea the best, her male counterpart was all about the ‘walk down memory lane’. His reasoning was so on point that he, more than anything else that had been said thus far, actually started to change my mind.

“Okay, so here is the main reason that I really like the ‘message’ video, is because you all need to get two videos done in a very short period of time…that’s planned, setup, filmed and edited within the next thirty days. The wrestling concept would take at least twice that long to plan since you would need to reach out to, at the very least, the WWE…but more likely the WWE, TNA and Ring of Honor to see if you can get some of their low card wrestlers because you are not going to find regular extras or models who can really pull off the look. The boxing one would be even worse. Not only do you not have any way to showcase Mercedes yet, but you still need to figure out the logistics of what, exactly you would need for the location. The high school one would be easiest to plan remotely. It will also be fairly easy to do the wardrobe and costuming. Casting would be a lot more straight forward. You say that you already have a great place for the club shots. It sounds like this one could be ready to go before you leave here today.”

Deborah, Mr. Knight, Ms. Lee, and Ms. Willthorne launched into a bunch of industry speak that seemed to boil down into a detailed analysis of Tony’s points. Mercy had looked like she was thinking really hard about something ever since. “If we do the ‘memory lane’ concept, we’d be filming in Lima, and I know exactly where we can film ‘ColorBlind’ also. The stage and the build zone of the April Rhodes Theater…I can even give all the necessary permissions, because I’m one of the seven people April named on the endowment as one of the trustees.”

Nick looked up. “I’ll have my assistant gather my usual crew and make the arrangements for us to spend the thirteenth through the seventeenth.” He grabbed his phone and sent off an email, while Ms. Lee and Ms. Willthorne called up a host of thousands. They released us five hours later…the wardrobing was already started. The locations, McKinley, Club Exxcess, the theatre and some botanical gardens that Nick decided was the very best place to do the full color scene for ‘ColorBlind’ but I’d never even heard of, and a house that they were renting to do the cyber bullying/bedroom scene, were all secured, and in the necessary places prepaid. Puck and I were pulled to the side and our brains picked about what kind of dance ability we each had, but to be honest, we didn’t really understand a lot of what they were asking. Thank God Mike was home when we Skyped him in. Then he and the choreographer dude, Ms. Lee had called up from who knows where, made a date to for them to work together to teach me and Noah the moves we’d need for the ‘ColorBlind’ video a couple of days before the filming. Mike, traitor that he was, even told the guy not to worry about Mercedes, because she picked up steps in a heartbeat.

When we arrived at the building that housed the Warner offices the sun hadn’t risen, when we left the offices, it was dark again because the sun had already set. We made our way on the subway to head over to the AMC Empire Theater where we were scheduled to meet up with Mills, Saul, Neil and Francesca. As we’d gotten to know Ms. Jarrard better, I’d stopped actively wanting to push her into traffic. I still thought that she needed to get over her body image obsession even more than I had, but I didn’t sit and seethe whenever she talked anymore. I didn’t really want to sit through the movie looking like I had just left the office, a sentiment both Mercy and Noah echoed, but when we arrived and found Saul and the rest were still in their work clothes too. Of course, Neil had the best reason. He was on call so there was no point in him getting out of his ‘I’m a doctor’ apparel just to, possibly, have to get right back in it.

The movie was just as good the second time as it had been the night of the premiere…though the audience was a lot noisier and talkative in the real theater setting. I was it to bursting with pride for my Mercy at the appreciative words of the audience around us. It was also really surreal. I mean, I was watching a movie on the huge screen and for well over a third of the scenes the woman I loved, who was sitting right beside me, was up there on the screen. Around us, I could hear younger women applauding her in the scene where she stood up to her mother, demanding the right to make her on choices. I could hear the men shuddering in dread, and from the sounds of things some were shivering in arousal, when she read her absentee father the riot act for barely being present in her life and then expecting her to be so happy and forgiving whenever he did pop up. I could hear the younger men in the audience talking about her beauty and how Mercy and Jill together would be the ultimate mom/daughter fantasy. Though that one really threw me. I mean, who had those…mother daughter fantasies. Maybe it was the whole southerner stereotype sensitivity thing, but I didn’t like the thought of even quasi-incest…it was really gross.

Since Neil’s pager hadn’t gone off, we decided to get some dinner together before we headed home. Our flight the next morning was pretty early and we still needed to talk about some of the things we’d learned that day. We stopped into a little place Mercy had wanted to hit because she’d seen it on Diners Drive-ins and Dives. They did have some awesome pitas and the tzatziki sauce was just wow. The fact that they both delivered and catered was like the cherry on the best day ever. We had a great time over dinner, Mills and Francesca had fun making Mercedes blush at all the attention the guys in the theatre had given her character. Saul was telling us that Mrs. Abrams was trying to convince him to take over our portfolio planning. As our accountant on record, she had gotten the same numbers Mr. Cohen had given us, so she was trying to get the right people in place before our album dropped and things went really crazy. I couldn’t help but pray that those thoughts went from her lips to God’s ears and we continued to be popular once the controversy died down.

 

Dime, Quarter, Nickel, Penny (Nappy Roots)  
Puck PoV

We really didn’t think anything about being out and about. Supposedly in New York, no one cared about that kind of thing. That was all well and good in theory, but it was complete and total bullshit in action. After eating a dinner worthy of the Olympian gods, we walked out of Gazala's Place 9th Avenue location and were besieged by new fans, cameras and mics. It took Mills, Saul, Francesca, Neil and three of the restaurant’s bus boys to force them back far enough that we could hear ourselves think let alone the questions people were asking. Cede manifested sharpies from her bag and we signed autographs for the fans who asked nicely. Sam and Cede ignored the mean spirited or overly perverted questions certain paps were tossing out and answered a few harmless ones. They even introduced our family members to the slavering hordes…I was busy glaring at the ones looking at Mercedes like she was nothing but a big butt and a smile. Apparently they wanted to know our opinions about the sales of the soundtrack and how the movie’s opening night numbers were pretty big for a movie with a predominantly black cast. Though, I wondered for a second who still counted Gary Owens as white. I’d talked with the guy on set one day enough to know that it wasn’t like he still wanted be among that category. His reasons were boss too. He got sick of people not realizing his kids were his damn kids. Hell, I was ready to defect my damn self. The second Cede gave me and Sam a pretty little mocha-latte little pumpkin or cute little caramel badass, it was deuces to being anything but their daddy. I forced my mind back to the present before someone caught a picture of me looking at my lovers with a stupid, dopey smile on my face. I was just in time to her one of them say that given the early first night box office returns SongBird was looking like it was going to have a bigger opening weekend than the second Fast and Furious movie or 8 Mile. That rendered all seven of us speechless, which seemed to set off a bomb among the paps and they were all shouting and clamoring again.

The boys in blue arrived and created order from the chaos. They gave us an escort to the nearest train station so the paps couldn’t even try following us home. We said goodnight to Neil and Francesca, confirmed our meeting details with Saul and Mills. Even with the delay, we still made it home by midnight. We had a lot to talk about but we also needed to relax in the worse way, so Cede decided that we all decided to run a bath. It wasn’t bad. She put in some of that awesome eucalyptus bubble bath that the jets made super frothy. As per our ‘clean room’ rules, we got undressed in our closet making sure that dirty clothes went into the proper hampers. I wouldn’t be shocked if they all made their way into the big, mostly empty, suitcase we were taking home. Cede would hate to leave dirty clothes in the house given how long we were gonna be gone. The night before, she had even told Artie and Brittany to make sure they put all their uneaten food in the freezer if it wasn’t going in the garbage.

It was only after we’d been soaking for a while that we finally confronted the massive white elephant that had been sitting among us since earlier that morning. “So…um…are we rich now?” Sam asked quietly.

“Not as rich as Jessie is. She has the songwriter credit for ‘Who You Are’…singers make good money, but it’s the song writers that get the real, continued residuals.” Mercedes said languidly. “Still, our song writer credits for ‘The Fighter’ aren’t gonna be too shabby.”

I rolled my eyes. Neither of my lovers were great at math so they weren’t able to do the figures in their heads like me. They didn’t realize the sheer amounts of money we were talking about. “Right now, before taxes we’ve cleared about a million or so each, not including the artist cut. That’s just our songwriter credit.”

“So we can pay the parents back for the house already?” Sam asked sounding confused. I understood the confusion. It was never supposed to be this soon. I’d been thinking that maybe after our whole album returns came in, we’d be able to take the burden off the grown-ups, not off one song on a movie soundtrack.

“No, they won’t want us to end up like MC Hammer so no way will they take the whole thing yet. We can give them maybe a year’s worth of mortgage payments, but they won’t let us give them everything off this first check.” Mercedes said still sounding shocked and dazed, but coherent. “We won’t let them continue to pay for everything for school though. We’ll give back in the ways they won’t be able to turn down.”

“Kev and Tricie’s honeymoon can be one way. I saw this boss ass Sandals package that I wanted to look into saving up for to give to Mom and George, but we can give Sandals to Kevon and Patrice and send Mom and George to Hawaii.” I said happily. “Maybe we send Saul and Mills to Monte Carlo…some place where gambling is legal other than Vegas and Atlantic City.”

“That’s perfect. Then once we get our real returns from our album, we can see about maybe doing something outrageous for them like buying them all brand new cars…or something.” Sam chimed in.

Cede’s laugh was loud and bounced off the tile and walls. “I’d say we can buy your parents their own house but no way is Momma letting them get away with Sloane let alone Stacey and Stevie.”

“Okay, so I say we handle this money like we would if it was a grand rather than a millie. We put some into the college funds for all the younger siblings and Beth. We pick one fun thing we want for ourselves, we set some back for taxes and we save the rest.” I said carefully. “Oh and the bomb ass gifts, but we limit those to two hundred and fifty thousand total so a little over eighty three grand each on the gifts, and we can each put ten grand in and divide that among the college funds, keep a limit of what five grand on ourselves, but no new gifts for each other because we just did the rings…that’s a good budget right.”

Mercedes and Sam both nodded. “Yup, now…enough talking about money, we all know we don’t consider really real yet, I say we just celebrate the fact that we’re already a third of the way to having a single we wrote go platinum.” Cede said her voice a low, seductive purr. So we did. We boned in the tub, then in the shower, then once on the floor in front of Cede’s closet because we didn’t make it to the bed, and finally once in the bed, because hey, it was our intended destination for the previous round and we kind of felt we should actually use condoms for at least three quarters of the rounds that night.

The next morning we put the house in total lockdown mode, called Rangeman and let the control room know that it would be empty all the way until Kurt and Jamie had to be back on the eleventh, and we still managed to catch a cab and make it to the airport by our predetermined meeting time of eight am. We looked bleary eyed and I prayed that there weren’t any paps anywhere nearby cause Sexy Mama would have lost her shit if they put up a picture of her looking like she’d been rode hard and put away wet, especially since she had totally forgotten to cover up the hickey on her cheek when she got dressed that morning. Going home always felt awesome, but it was even more so considering the news that we had to share. I still couldn’t believe what our lives were becoming. I was just really happy to be celebrating our second Christmas together, one big ass, badass happy family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next update for this story may be a little while coming. I’m on the home stretch in the work I’m doing for the Out With A Bang challenge over at AO3 and I’m writing a seven chapter side story showing every one the Christmas/Winter break for our beloved New Directions. I’m not going to post it until all seven chapters are ready. Then we will return to this installment with chapter 11.   
> Thanks for your continued support and patience.   
> Please continue to read, enjoy and review.   
> TTFN,  
> Anni


	11. Applause & I Hope They Get to Me in Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories
> 
> Special thanks to JazMitch & Isis Aurora Tomoe who have been Beta rock stars for my Christmas story.  
> Anyone who is interested in applying to Beta the Learning French Series going forward, please PM me. I need one to two new betas. Please & Thank you.

Chapter 11  
Applause (Lady GaGa)  
Mercedes PoV

Christmas was great. We had a blast hanging out with everyone and just being back with our family but at the same time I missed our house in Harlem. It was a weird feeling of truly belonging and yet it not necessarily being ‘home’ any longer. We made huge plans and it felt like we were just on the cusp of something huge. Since Mom and Dad had done our dental checkups at the beginning of the summer when their schedule was lightest, we’d had to block out some time for cleanings and thankfully nobody had any cavities, though Stevie looked like he was heading to the orthodontist in January, so it was a really quick Saturday morning. Then I got dragged to the mall for shopping with my girls which was followed by shower quickies with Sam and Noah and the big ass party for all of us and our families.

A few days after that, Hollywood invaded little Lima Ohio. Marko was the first to show up. In an hour and a half he had taught Mike and Brittany all the choreography for both videos. It took the three of them four days to get Noah and Sam where they needed to be for ‘ColorBlind’. Fortunately the video for ‘The Fighter’ had very little in the way of dancing and a whole lot more in the way of acting. When we did the ‘performance’ in the club scene all the choreography was really simple for us and a lot more complex for the background dancers from Brittany’s class. By the time Deborah and Mrs. Morgan arrived from Chicago, they had interviewed and casted the other seven speaking parts, though they were only one liners anything more than that would be handled by the New Directions, well and Karofsky and Adams. The two executives had also picked and prepped about three hundred extras who would provide ‘cannon fodder’ in the hallways. Some were slated to look like outcasts, some like loners, some like the school’s beta popular set, the ones not at the very top of the food chain, but the next rung down. All in all they had done a great job setting the extras so that they would give a decent representation of an average high school hall way.

The shoot for the soundtrack video was done on the Sunday after school was back in session. Our Sunday morning hair and makeup call was at five so we were up and showering by four. Since everything would be basically redone, we didn’t bother trying to look fly. I threw on some lingerie whose lines would be easy to camouflage, a pair of black yoga pants, a long sleeved black tee shirt and a bright ass pink top with Diva written across my breasts in black cursive. A pair of running shoes that matched the shirt finished me off. Sam and Puck were both rocking their McKinley sweat pants and some long sleeved tees of their own. We swung through the Lima Bean and grabbed coffees for our friends. We knew that the catering would handle the rest of the cast and crew.

We pulled into the parking lot that was already alive with activity despite the early hour. There were trailers rigged in big squared circles and lit by huge spotlights on big towers. In one everything was set to do hair and makeup touchups and fixes for the extras. The other was set up for their costumes. Nick was on us as soon as we stepped foot out of Mom’s Enclave…well his assistant Molly did. “Oh great you guys are here. Perfect.” Nick said as soon as Molly had completed the drag to the auditorium. “Here’s the deal we’re doing all the school shots here today. Then tomorrow we’ve got the two other house locations and we’ll wrap this video with the club performance tomorrow night.”

“Okay, but I thought we were doing all the house scenes in the same house?” Sam asked curiously.

Nick nodded then shook his head rapidly. “We were, but then I decided that Puck needed a different back story. So rather than he being bullied at school, we’re going to take him back to his roots. School bully, but mainly because he is bullied at home. So we’ll have a separate home shoot for that. Michael Shannon is going to play your drunk, abusive father.”

That made a certain amount of sense. Puck seemed to like it too. “That works, I wasn’t sure what I was gonna do to look like I would have been picked on.”

We quickly found out that if Nick hadn’t made the changes he made, then the costume director, would have had Puck covered. After hair and makeup, where they did some tricks to make me look about four or five years younger and my weave was wound up and hidden under a wig that looked almost exactly like my hair freshman year of high school, I was led back to the girls dressing room and put into a minimizing bra and a girdle that slimmed down my ass, hips and thighs, making me look more like I was pubescent rather than mostly grown. They also handed me a pair of dark wash jeans that fit well, but weren’t anything that I would have picked for myself and a teal boat-neck top with a purple heart on the front with the word ‘GIFT’D’ across the heart. When I was dressed they gave me a pair of slip on black and teak checked Vans. By the time I got those on, Tina, Quinn, Lauren, Santana, Brittany, Tessa, Unique and Marley were done with hair and makeup and sent in to costuming to change into their assigned wardrobe.

Britts, Tana, Marley and Tessa were all given blue and white cheerleading uniforms that were slightly different in design from the Cheerio’s, and rather than having WMHS across the front their uniforms had Spartans. Their hair was down and straight though pulled back in front and held back with blue and white clips. Their makeup was flawless, and given that I looked rather boring and dowdy, made me a little jealous. I looked at the rest of the crew and knew without a doubt that the costume designer had definitely done her homework. Tina looked all gothed out like she had sophomore year and Lauren looked like she definitely rolling deep in Tee’s clique. Quinn was wearing one of her old ‘aren’t I an angel’ looking outfits, but one that I didn’t recognize and quickly realized was her costume for the day. Unique looked enough like me to have been my sister…a sister who was both younger and taller, so not fair. She looked cute in a pair of fuchsia leggings and a tri color tunic top with a darling pair of black gladiator sandals.

I saw Sam first. He was in costume in a pair of jeans that looked like they had seen better days about ten years before and an Avatar shirt that was both ill-fitting and threadbare. His navy Chuck Taylors looked all beat up and the had given him a really realistic looking wig that made his hair look all shaggy and in more dire need of a haircut than it had when we went to prom. He looked like that kid that the rich kids tormented never considering that it was their parents who had money and in reality they were just as poor as the kid they were torturing. Puck was in a blue and white letterman jacket, some jeans that made his ass look incredible and a simple ‘school’ team shirt. Finn, Mike, Karofsky, Vince, Adams, and Blaine were dressed the similarly. Aidan, Jake and a few of the newer New Direction boys like Joe and Justin and Casey looked like they were another sport’s team, their jackets were in the correct colors, but looked different. Kurt looked a lot like he had three years before. A pair of skinny jeans, an interesting little ‘blouse’ with birds in flight on a field of white. The makeup and hair people had done something to make him look all babyfied as he’d looked when we first joined the New Directions. Artie was in his chair with cuffed jeans and a black graphic top with Darth Maul on the front. He was wearing his glasses, but his hair wasn’t too nerdy. He looked like those fifty/fifty kids. The kind that might get picked on one day but not on another.

As soon as the sun came up, we were in place and running the scenes. We did Sam’s first. Nick had him coming down a crowded hallway filled with people who were whispering and snickering as he walked by. Noah and I were both in the scene in a background kind of way, looking at Sam as if we wished we could say something and stop Karofsky from teasing and mocking him. Ultimately with a snarled, ‘can you even afford to be here. Wouldn’t your family be better off if you dropped out and got a real job.’ Dave knocked his books to the ground and everyone else laughed. I waited until no one would see me and then went up and helped them gather them up as they cut the scene.

One of my scenes was shot second. It was staged in the lunchroom. I got my tray, and as I walked to an empty table, the cheerleaders were mooing at me. Of course when I walked past, Santana tuck out her leg and tripped me so that I dropped everything and fell to my knees. I shot her an angry look as the rest of the room erupted in laughter and joined the cow sounds. Again Puck and Sam were in the background, both of them filed out near the back of the crowd and looked like they wanted to help me but didn’t dare.

Puck’s scene was in the gym. Everyone was in blue and white gym uniforms, mine so tight across the chest that I couldn’t take a deep breath…just like my real one had been a few years ago. He looked like he had just finished making a basket when he grabbed the rebound out of the air and beaned Artie with it, to the delight of his ‘crew’. He looked a little sad after everyone had moved on, but only Coach Bieste, playing the gym coach went to Artie’s aid. Then it was time for a costume change for a lot of us. Nick kept us changing what me, Sam and Noah had on and we ran the lunchroom scene with different cheer chick taunting a whole bunch of times, the first few I had a tray and the rest I had either just a milk or juice or just water. The last time we ran the scene, I was put in a denim skirt and cute sweater with some calf boots and as I walked past the taunting not-cheerios, I had to act like I passed out. Then I was filmed in the nurse’s office with a woman who was way too pretty to be a school nurse playing one when Jill ran in playing the concerned mother.

I was shocked as hell to see her since Lima Ohio was not where one expected to see Jill Scott. But since it was the video for a song off the soundtrack, it did make a certain kind of sense that she be my mother there too. Over lunch, I introduced her to Tina, Tessa and the rest of my friends that she hadn’t met yet. I invited her to dinner with my parents since she didn’t have to be back in Dayton until ten that evening. When she accepted, I texted my mom the news and I swear that I could hear her scream of joy and delight across town. Daddy’s too. They were big fans.

The rest of the shoot focused on Sam and Puck, but I was still background on each of their scenes. Puck’s scenes were focused on his bullying and the seeming reluctance to do so. Sam’s showed other instances of his being picked on for not having as much as those around him. But other scenes showed the backstories of some of the other bullying jocks, like Blaine was shown picking on one extra who was ‘obviously gay’ but kissing Kurt in an empty classroom. Finn snapped Lauren’s bra strap in one scene, but Nick caught a great candid shot of them when they didn’t think anyone else was paying attention and Finn was kneeling in front of her tying her boots for her. Mike and Tina got caught sneaking out of a janitor’s closet only to go back to acting like they didn’t know each other. It was cute and I loved it. Nick wasn’t sure if he would use all of them, but it was still great in my head for people to see all that.

By the time we finally broke for the evening, we’d been at school for seventeen hours, and Kurt had accompanied Jill Scott to my parent’s house so that she could have the promised dinner even if Nick was never going to be done with us. Part of me wondered why the hell Nick needed so much film for a three minute fifty-two second video, but I knew that this was my time to learn so I kept my mouth shut.

The next morning it was basically just the New Directions for hair and makeup, me, Sam and Noah filmed our individual scenes. The cheer chicks were in one bedroom looking like they were at a slumber party. Well, Hollywood’s version thereof, they were huddled around a computer clearly engaging in some cyber bullying. In another room in the same house, one that had been decorated to look like Lillian’s from the movie, I was sitting in a purple silk V-neck camisole with spaghetti straps and matching pajama pants. I’d put on a pretty black demi bra and the straps peeked out from the camisole. I got to look hurt and angry and vengeful only to finally shut everything off and go over and basically cry huddled up on my bed.

Sam’s scene was him in threadbare Batman pajama pants and a black ribbed, tank tee-shirt looking around a neat but pretty empty kitchen before he finally went over to the sink and seemed to be trying to drink enough water to fill the void. Then he sat at the table and tried to do homework on an empty stomach, it was so sad because we all knew that far too many children and teens in the country were doing that night after night for real. In the scene, he struggled through it and put his stuff away. Then he went to bed after drinking more water. Nick had him get dressed as if he were going to school and they changed the lighting outside the kitchen but it was just a repeat of the ‘night before’ no food had magically appeared and he just drank a boat load of water before grabbing his back pack and heading out anyway. Sam’s scenes all made me so grateful that his family had had the gleeks and hadn’t had to go as hungry as many people did.

The last scene we filmed was Puck’s home scene. Michael Shannon, from Revolutionary Road was an epic casting choice. He must have owed Nick or somebody a huge favor. He seemed very, very drunk and very, very belligerent as he pretty much ambushed Puck as soon as he walked in the door. It was a hard scene to watch and made me wonder if that was what Puck’s life would have been like if Paul had stayed with his family. After taking the abuse and you could clearly see that the verbal abuse was just the tip of the iceberg, Puck finally escaped to his room to try and study, only to be hounded there by his ‘father’ as well. The scene wasn’t wrapped until Puck, dressed for the new day, tiptoed past his passed out father to be able to go to school un-assaulted. It was deep and rather heart wrenching, but a lot less so than Sam’s because we knew that it was fake and Sam’s had been all too close to being true.

That night, Club Excess was packed to the gills. Everyone came in their own clothes, so that they looked like time had passed. Kurt and Blaine were clearly together as were Lauren and Finn, Mike and Tina, Tessa and Aidan, and all of our couples really, they all looked happy and like they had matured. They were nearest the stage in the very crowded club. Puck, Sam and I were on stage with Brittany, Santana and Quinn. Que and Tana were our backup singers and Brittany was with the dancers. Que and Tana were in sexy leather rompers with banteau necklines and sheer sleeves. Their heels were tall as they were comfortable in, so four and a half inches, and bright, glaring purple suede. I wore a pair of black leather over the knee boots the same height as Tana and Que’s heels, my leggings were the same color purple as their shoes and my top was a black leather corset top that masqueraded as a blazer with a purple faux shell hiding my breasts from being overly exposed. Sam and Puck were both rocking the black leather pants ‘rockstar’ look with shirts that complemented their complexion and clung to every ridge of their muscles, deep blue for Sam and bright red for Noah. Sam was rocking blue Chuck Taylors and Puck had on some tech boots that looked complicated and more than a little roughneck.

We didn’t just do one song over and over, we did a mini concert and the audience loved it. We did pretty much every song we had and a few that we loved from other people. Since the performance scene would only show us doing ‘The Fighter’ and all cell phones and recording devices had been banned, we could really just cut loose. Especially since technically we wouldn’t earn anything from the performance of other’s songs. We went on at ten and didn’t come down until half past eleven. It was pretty awesome.

We had Tuesday off, sort of, there was a still choreography practice and I had to learn my part of the fight dance, and then Wednesday morning we reported to the botanical gardens about an hour from Lima. The premise for ‘ColorBlind’ had changed a bit as well. Rather than being very much a casual day in the park, the color scenes were filmed as a Victorian ball that was taking place in the beautiful park setting of the botanical gardens. When we arrived they had racks of gorgeous Victorian era ball gowns in a rainbow of colors for the women and white, buff or black evening britches and colorful jackets from the Regency era for the guys. Glenna, the costumer Ms. Willthrone had sent to us for the two videos, was amazing at her job. The teal ball gown she pulled for me was a work of art. It had a broad, wide bell shaped skirt, a tight, smooth bodice with amber bead work embroidered in small flowered patterns with diamantes at the center of each ‘bloom’. The waistline came to a point, from which the skirts belled out. Its neckline was designed with the word ‘décolletage’ in mind. It was trimmed in light gold lace threaded through with matching teal ribbon.

I was corseted and then helped into a million layers of petticoats, though Glenna did spare me the indignity of pantalets. I much preferred my lacy boyshorts. Then I was put into a robe and sent to hair and makeup. My weave was pulled up into a puffy, regal updo with a slight side part at the front before the bangs were swept to the side and into the updo. My makeup was kept to a very natural look with a delicious wine stained lip. My earrings were ornate and matched the amber and teal color scheme of my dress. Then it was back to Glenna who, with the help of her team lowered the dress carefully over my hair and face settling it into place and tying it onto me. Then the off the shoulder cap sleeves were puffed up and Roni, one of Glenna’s helpers helped me into period appropriate shoes. I was taken out to see Puck and Sam looking very, very dapper in their costumes. They were each wearing the clothes of the Regency era, just a decade before the era of the dresses. I wasn’t sure why, it was probably because the colors for men’s clothing in the Regency era were less subdued that they were under Queen Victoria.

Sam was in black pantaloons with a double breasted amber tail coat, teal and amber waistcoat and starched, high necked white shirt. The cravat was prettily ‘folded’ white linen embroidered with amber and teal silk thread. His pantaloons were tucked into well shined and well cared for Hessians, even though those wouldn’t have been worn for an evening event. Glenna probably did it because the tall men’s boots were pretty iconic for the era. He looked really gorgeous and made me want to find a fainting couch. Puck was just as handsome in buff colored pantaloons that were tucked into almost identical boots. His tail coat was single breasted and a slightly deeper teal than my dress, matching the detailing in Sam’s outfit more closely. His waist coat was more amber than teal and his cravat looked like Sam’s but it was tied in a less complex knot. I was the luckiest woman to ever walk the face of the earth. Because they were both all mine.

Once everyone was dressed, I was just amazed at how beautiful everyone was. Tina looked great in a salmon pink Victorian era gown with a split front skirt that displayed a pale cream faille underskirt. Tessa’s dress was a deep bronzed green, the bodice fitting her like a second skin and the skirt bustled rather than being super full. Quinn’s dress was a very pale shade of green. It was new-fangled for the era as well with a full bustle and rows upon rows of white lace making up the front of the dress’ skirt. Lauren’s dress was more like mine, the very, very full skirt and a deeper color…a shade of burnt umber/copper that reminded me of Tina’s homecoming dress the year before. It looked amazing against Lauren’s very, very pale skin. Santana’s dress was full skirted and a shade of lavender that I almost envied. I didn’t envy the ringlet curls they had bunched at her ears though, that looked ridiculous. Brittany’s dress was lemon yellow and blue damask, it was also from the bustle era and made the most of her very, very modest curves. I now knew why Nick had been very direct about his desire to have Unique there as well for that shoot as well. Looking around, the cast was very diverse, but with Vince, Adams and Jake, there were more black men and then just me, with Unique there too, it evened things out a bit. Her dress was a more ‘off the rack’ looking bright blue satin Victorian gown with the neckline and shoulders softened with a baby blue, white and pale peach lace fichu. Her wig was done in a mass of curls that was more Regency than Victorian, but they made it work…and it had ribbons of the same colors as the fichu threaded through the curls. Marley hadn’t been able to get permission to join us for that shoot but neither had Ryder so they were stuck at McKinley. The guys ranged from simple Regency evening wear in complimentary colors like Noah and Sam, all the way to full bore Regency dandy for Kurt, Blaine and Karofsky. Artie was even done up right and in an era correct sedan chair.

When we walked out into the garden there were about a hundred extras decked out for the time period and ready to go. The first scene was a ball in the gardens where everyone paired up to dance to a beautiful minuet. First I danced with Sam and then I waltzed with Noah and then did a modified waltz with both, but when I should have danced with Sam again, Noah tried to claim me. Then they started doing their fight choreography which to me blended the ‘fight’ from Pink’s Try with stage fighting and the fighting style from Star Trek the Original Series, with some ballet tossed in for beauty. It was gorgeous and my husbands did a great job. We did a few takes and after Nick was satisfied, we were ushered back to the costume area and pulled from the eighteen fifties to the nineteen fifties. For that one I was in a strapless, vintage, Charles James deep gray netting over layers nude chiffon ball gown, my hair was redone into a more sedate style. The Victorian looking accessories were traded for midcentury modern versions in titanium or darkened bronze. All the girls were similarly grayed out and so were the guys.

The ball for that scene was less populated only about fifty extras and then the rest of us. It seemed less like a ball and more like a cocktail party from a fifty’s sitcom. I was kept running between my two loves trying to placate them and bring them back together as they seemed to be holding a very strong grudge. I remembered wondering if that was how I should handle it and finally deciding that giving them time and space to work through it themselves. Probably the placation and diplomacy would have worked as well as the hands off, unless it went the way it did in the filmed scene. From what I could tell that set of scenes was all about the dying relationship, color leaving our world. It was even filmed in a different part of the gardens where it was mainly greenery and ivy rather than flowering plants.

It was back to costuming, where everyone but us got to get back into their street clothes, but the three of us changed for a third time. This time the clothing was very, very modern black clothing. I was a black matelasse dress with a chiffon back inset featuring floral crystal embroidery. The dress had a V neckline and was sleeveless with moderately wide shoulder straps. It drew me in with a curved seam at natural waist and made me look a little taller with a ruffled full skirt with arched hem. A pair of four inch high Jimmy Choo Kayden patent leather sandals with cutouts at the heels and thin ankle straps was given to me to finish the look. My hair was turned into long sleek waves and bumped under at the ends. My makeup was modernized as well with a smokey eye and velvety, matte purple lips. Simple diamond stud earrings and my platinum cross were all I wore as far as jewelry went. Puck wore a suit and tie in shades of charcoal and black. Sam’s suit was black on black on black. But his brighter eyes and hair would look even starker for the difference.

For this part of the shoot we were in a building on site, it would have taken too long to go back to McKinley and while it would have cost less in the rental fee, it would have ended up costing a lot more overall. The space had already been prepared so that there were three ‘boxes’ of black curtains in which we would all be filmed. It took about an hour and a half of singing the song over and over again as we were filmed. We had gotten there around eight in the morning and we finally got let loose close to midnight. We were all exhausted so rather than drive back to Lima, we got a room at the same hotel Nick and the rest of the crew were staying in. We barely had the energy to make love, but with all the memories and feelings that had been drawn back up to the forefront of our minds, we couldn’t not reconnect physically and drive out the old demons with more love. 

We flew back to New York that Saturday and got ready for classes to begin the day after MLK day. Getting back into the flow of juggling our school lives was hard, not because we had trouble managing it, but simply because our classmates were reacting to us completely differently. They were fangirling and boying. They were constantly taking pics of us and posting them to the boards. I wore a pair of skinny jeans to class and dropped my pencil and next thing I knew there was a huge surge in membership to a fan club that was apparently created just for people who loved my ass. People were ridiculous, but I guess it was flattering. Thankfully the people in me and Puck’s kickboxing and sculpting course were too busy trying to keep up with the instructor and/or not die, like I was, to bother us or take pictures of us sweating our asses off.

We had completed our very first week of the second semester of classes and scheduled a meeting at Warner to view the finished videos before The Fighter debuted at the end of the month and ColorBlind debuted at the end of February. The meeting was scheduled as a dinner meeting in the conference room at the Warner offices at seven on Thursday evening at seven. However we almost canceled it completely.

 

I Hope They Get to Me in Time (Darius Rucker)  
Finn PoV

Heading back to school after Christmas was way more exciting than it should have been. Vince and I had to leave Lima early for a bowl game, which we totally won, so we missed a lot of the real friend bonding time, but it was cool. They all texted us to congratulate us for our win. I stayed completely sober at the after parties and was even able to finally get that girl who’d been flirting with me all the time to understand that I was Lauren’s for as long as she would have me. I was still in all core curriculum classes, so things weren’t too difficult. The Orange Bowl was the last game for the season, so we were scheduling our dates around Lauren’s schedule, so we went out on Saturday nights. Our first official date was just dinner and a movie and a long walk in one of the parks on campus. We decided that we wanted to go off campus for our second date. The OSU Marching Band was performing with the Columbus Symphony at the Ohio Theatre and, as students, we could get the tickets for half price, so we got very dressed up and we went to dinner and then to the theatre.

Lauren looked amazing in a black cocktail dress in what Kurt had taught me was a shawl collar and riching or ruching or something that pulled in at her waist. I wore a simple black suit with a white shirt and charcoal gray tie. We made our dinner reservation at Café Napolitana, which had great pizza and pasta dishes that were out of the world and not too expensive. Then it was on to the theatre for the music, which wasn’t too high brow. I actually liked it. It was an interesting blend of instruments to me and to be honest I’m definitely more of a songs with lyrics kind of guy, but it was good. And Lauren loved it. She kept talking about how some of the songs were from famous movie scores. The date was amazing. We walked back to the truck which really probably didn’t go very well with our snazzy clothes, but we worked with what we had. We were driving back to campus when suddenly there were bright lights coming full on at us. I tried to swerve and automatically threw my right arm across Lauren’s chest to hopefully keep her from impacting the dashboard, but then there was just the sound of squealing tires and busting glass.

For a while things were really hinky, I heard Lauren begging me to be okay. I didn’t feel like I could move and breathing took more concentration than I could really manage. I tried to ask her if she was okay, I felt like she was crying and in pain or something. Then I heard somebody saying that we’d be okay, we just had to hold on. I heard sirens, but I couldn’t hear Lauren anymore. I didn’t care about the fact that it was really, really hard to move my arm or about the glass on the seat. I wanted to touch Lauren, see if she was alright. I managed to get to where I could feel her hand but after that, there was only darkness.


	12. (Untitled) How Could This Happen To Me (Simple Plan) & Radio Friendly Pop Song (Matt Fishel)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I own Nothing…Murphy, Falchuk, and Brennen along with Fox and others own this fandom and all the characters there in…Anything you recognize obviously belongs to them   
> Father Andrew Kiernan (Gabriel Byrne) – Stigmata belongs to FGM Entertainment, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and its writer, director and etc. 'Touch The Hem of His Garment' was originally recorded by Sam Cooke.

(Untitled) How Could This Happen To Me (Simple Plan)  
Carole Hummel’s PoV

There are things so inherently daunting, so universally frightening, so completely, bone chillingly terrifying that no one ever allows themselves to think that it could happen to them. Then the phone rings at one thirty eight in the morning. Burt answered because if you have a husband and the phone rings that late at night, they answer it. The look of absolute horror that crossed his face was so stark it took me a second to notice that the tears that started streaming down his face. “Is he?”

I was such a coward in that moment. I retreated behind a wall of efficiency. I stood up and raced to the closet, grabbing my cell phone on the way to check flights. I dressed as quickly as I could and dragged a suitcase to the bed to start to throw some clothes into it. Only then did I hear Burt’s voice, still on the phone in one hand and talking into his cell phone on the other. “Yeah, Bent, I can’t… and I know Ben won’t be able to do you mind? Thanks. No, of course we would. Yeah, Carole’s packin’ us some clothes now. No, they are both alive, just…pray man. We’ll see you in a few. I’ll call Laura and Ben and let them know that you’re going to drive us so there won’t be any more wrecks tonight.” My mind never went to Finn, I thought, I thought it was a call about Kurt.

In that moment I understood that it wasn’t Kurt that had been hurt. It was Finn. My whole body went numb. Burt later told me that I fainted. He said that I dropped like a sack of wet noodles and nothing he said or did could bring me around. I knew that was because I didn’t faint, not really. I just couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t move. My heart refused to beat. Nothing at all made any impact until I heard Danica’s voice saying “Carole, he is still alive. Finn isn’t dead, but he and Lauren have both been seriously hurt.” In my insensate moments Benton and Danica had arrived and Bent and Burt had gotten us packed while Danica did what it took to break through the haze of pain and fear that I was drowning in.

“He is…” I couldn’t ask what I wanted to know most, but Danica understood as only another mother probably could.

She hugged me tightly. “Carole, I’m not going to lie to you. From what they said to Burt, it is not looking great, but Finn is a fighter. He is young and strong and healthy. He has a lot of people praying for him. Mercedes is getting Kurt and Blaine on a plane and they will be meeting you at the hospital. So come on. We’ve gotta go.”

I nodded dumbly and just let her lead me to their SUV. “What happened?” I heard Benton ask as he turned the car towards the Zizes home.

“Finn and Lauren had gone out tonight. The cops said they were heading back to campus when they were hit head on by someone who came into their lane. He said it looks like Finn tried to swerve out of the way, but there just wasn’t any way he could have avoided it. They were almost back on campus.” He sounded shocked and appalled. 

“Oh God, Lauren…” I murmured. I hadn’t even thought beyond my own pain. Laura and Ben must be just as scared as we are.

“Both kids were taken to Wexner Medical Center on campus. They are getting the best care they can. I think Ben said that he called Vince and he was going over to see if he could find out anything more.” Benton said soothingly.

When we pulled into the Zizes drive way, Laura and Ben were already waiting outside; it looked like they each had a backpack, but nothing more than that. I realized that I hadn’t even grabbed my purse. Before I could say anything, Dani handed me my Marc Jacob purse that Kurt had gotten me for Christmas. I don’t know how we got to the highway, I know that Benton had to be speeding his ass off, because we got pulled over, but when Burt explained to the officer why Benton was driving so fast, the officer were kind enough to give us an escort to the edge of his jurisdiction. I later learned that we made the ninety two mile journey in a little under an hour. When we got to the hospital, Vince was seated in the waiting room. He was wearing mis-matched tennis shoes and his winter coat over his pajamas. He came over and gave Laura and me both big hugs. “They say that they can’t tell me anything, but one of the nurses said that Elle,” that poor baby’s voice hitched like the thought of her being in surgery was as painful to him as it was to any of the rest of us, simply because it was, “Elle would be out of surgery and in recovery pretty soon.”

“Good, that’s good.” I heard myself say.

“Any word on Finn.” Burt asked holding my hand so tightly it might have broken if I wasn’t squeezing back just as hard.

Vince shook his head. “I just…they said that the way he swerved, he took the brunt of the collision.” It was hellish seeing such a strong young man start to cry.

Benton looked at his phone. “Kurt and Blaine’s flight should be landing soon. You guys text me if you need anything before I get back with them.” He said quietly as we started our vigil. The vigil would still be taking place when Kurt and Blaine came running in both still in their pajamas carrying backpacks bulging with probably whatever clothes their hands fell on.

Everyone was still hugging and trying to hold ourselves together when a Doctor approached us. “I’m looking for the family of Lauren Zizes.” He called quietly, obviously not understanding that we were all there together.

Laura pulled me up with her and I dragged Danica with me. Ben reached for Vince as he stood and we looked at the doctor expectantly. “We’re all here for both Lauren and Finn.” We told him honestly.

He looked like he wanted to object, but glares from every man and woman there stopped him cold. “Lauren is out of surgery and doing well. She is in recovery. Her injuries were far less severe than the young man that she was brought in with. She has extensive bruising of her chest and abdomen from the safety belt and from what the first responders feel was,” he checked something on his notes, “Mr. Hudson’s attempt to…he put his arm across her chest as if to help keep her safe. And it seemed to work. She didn’t hit her head or suffer much whiplash.” I couldn’t help but smile sadly. Finn would definitely be proud to know that he done everything that he could to keep her safe. “We took her into surgery to repair a compound fracture of her right arm and some severe lacerations to her shoulder and neck. She did loose quite a bit of blood, however she was dazed but conscious when she was brought in. the surgery went well. She has some spraining and other contusions all along her right side, but she doesn’t have other fractures or large lacerations. We’ll come back and let you know more as soon as she is in her room.”

“Doctor, were you their admitting physician?” I asked him quickly before he could walk away. “Could you give us the preliminaries on Finn?”

He looked a little perturbed but seemed to think about how small a thing I was asking for compared to the large amount of comfort I would receive for knowing something, anything. “Your son presented with severe head, chest and abdominal trauma. He had impacted the steering wheel with his head and then was pinned between the wheel and his seat. While the truck’s age meant that it didn’t have airbags and therefore there was more damage than we would have hoped to see for anyone that comes into the ER, it was a tough old truck. If he makes it, it will be because of the truck’s steel frame.”

“The son of a bitch that caused the crash…what he drunk, was he texting…why did he swerve into my boy’s lane.” Burt growled quietly.

“I’m sorry, sir. The driver of the other car involved in the accident was taken to Riverside. We don’t have any information on him at this time.” He told us with a look that told me that he wasn’t being honest, like at all. I was pretty sure that he wouldn’t tell us anything because the bastard was a DUI who’d walked away without a scratch. If he was it was probably best that the doctor had lied. Burt would have killed him, if I didn’t.

After about forty five minutes, they came back and led Laura, Ben and Vince to Lauren’s room. Once Vince had seen for himself that she would be okay, he came back to let us know where her room was. He must have passed a vending machine bank because he came back carrying enough waters for all of us. He was such a good kid. I was so happy that Finn had made such a good friend. Kurt came over and he took the seat Danica had vacated to go call and check on her babies. “I texted everyone, Tina’s crying, Mike’s going over to her campus to be with her until she can calm down.” He said wryly. “Mercedes, Sam, Puck, Santana and Artie went to Corpus Christi, the Catholic Church on Columbia’s campus, and lit candles and said prayers for him. Oh and Satan’s dad said that he will let the nursing staff know what is going on and make sure that you have all the time you need. Brittany swears that he’ll be fine because Lord Tubbington would have told her if something really bad was going to happen to any of her friends.” I smiled a little. That girl was something else. “Quinn also entered a church, the fact that she and Santana can enter those ‘hallowed’ halls is what ultimately makes me so secure in my disbelief in a single, high deity.”

I gave him another small smile. Finn had made quite a few really great friends. For so long the only true friend he had had was Puck. The fact that now he had so many true, caring friends…it was making me feel a little better. “How are you holding up?” I asked him as I could see the fraying edges of his control as surely as he had seen mine.

“I, I don’t know how to answer that yet.” He finally said honestly. “Blaine, Cedes and her boys pretty much got me here. I don’t remember anything after Dad called and before we saw you two here. It just doesn’t seem real, ya know. This seems like something that happens to other people. My brother is not supposed to be fighting for his life just because he wanted to show his girlfriend how much he values her.” His voice started to break and I pulled him to me. Together we wept and I know that I certainly prayed for the boy we both loved.

An eternity of tears, quiet contemplation and prayer later a different doctor came to the door calling for the family of Finn Hudson. We rose and walked over, mentally preparing ourselves for the worse. “I want to start by saying that Mr. Hudson did survive the surgery. He is currently in recovery. The accident caused head, neck and abdominal trauma. Thankfully his spine was neither severed nor severely bruised. Unfortunately, the impact caused two hairline fractures of his skull as well as a subdural hematoma. However, we were able to treat that with a simple Burr hole trephination, rather than more complex neurosurgery. Unfortunately while those were certainly dangerous, they were not the full extent of his injuries. He also suffered a ruptured spleen and a ruptured gallbladder. We have treated the spleen with arterial embolization at the three tears in hopes to save the organ, but he will be closely monitored and if we need to go back in and take it, we will. The gallbladder we took during the surgery. His C-3 & 4 vertebrae both presented with small non-displaced fractures, so he will be in a collar for at least six to eight weeks. His ribs are riddled with hairline fractures as well, but fortunately there were no actual breaks and his lungs were not compromised. He broke both his left arm and leg, but that was a simple break of his ulna and radius in his arm and his tibia, fibula and femur. Those have been set and he has a forearm cast and a full hip to ankle cast on his leg. The lightest of his injuries are rather severe sprains of both his right shoulder and elbow and lacerations of his right hand and forearm.”

I wanted to ask him if Finn would be okay. I wanted to beg him to tell me that my child would leave the hospital in a week or so under his own power. But my voice wouldn’t work and my husband was nowhere near as knowledgeable as to what that all meant. “What does that all mean? Is Finn gonna be okay?”

The doctor looked contemplative for a moment. “Right now he is in a medically induced coma to give his body time to heal. The head injury could have been worst. We were able to relieve the pressure on the brain by drilling a small hole into his skull and suctioning out the blood. The neck injury is fairly severe whiplash, but his vertebrae and spine are all whole and in good shape. Thankfully assistance arrived on the scene quickly and he was rushed in. We were able to attempt a repair job to the spleen because, given his age, it would compromise his immune system too much to remove it if we can save it. The gallbladder is useful, but it is a lot easier to live without it, than the spleen. If he watches what he eats, and decreases the amount of unnecessary fats in his diet, he may never even miss it. He lost a lot of blood, so we’re watching his blood pressure carefully to make sure that we caught all the bleeds. The next twenty four to forty-eight hours we will still consider him touch and go and he will not be out of ICU for at least seventy-two hours.” He paused and turned back to us. “If any of you are type O negative, please feel free to donate while you are here. It is a rather rare blood type and we had to utilize almost forty-five percent of our stockpile during the operation.”

“So he’s going to be alright?” Kurt asked, begging as he sensed that I just couldn’t voice the words just in case the answer was no, for the doctor to say that Finn would be fine.

“If he makes through the next forty-eight hours, I am very optimistic that he will have a full recovery.” the doctor told us with total honesty and sincerity.

We thanked him and waited until Finn was settled in the ICU. It was after eight in the morning when we were finally able to go and sit with him two at a time for ten minutes. Benton and Danica went first, praying for him and over him, so that they could get back home. They had left in such a hurry, Danica hadn’t thought to grab her breast pump and she was starting to be in quite a bit of pain. But neither of them had been willing to leave us until we knew something. Vince, Laura and Ben came up and took a turn visiting with him also. I could hear Laura thank him for making sure that Lauren was as okay as she was. As much as I hurt with the pain of fearing for my son’s life, I was also filled with a sense of pride at her words. He was so like his father had been before his last deployment and so like Burt as well. He loved fiercely and would do anything to protect those he loved. Once we had all had a chance to sit with or prayed over him, I got to stay, but only one of us could be in the room at a time for more than fifteen minutes at a time. Burt would come in and sit with him after lunch. Benton and Dani drove Burt and the boys to a nearby hotel, and I settled down with my baby and prayed to every deity I had ever believed in that he would be okay.

Radio Friendly Pop Song (Matt Fishel)  
Puck PoV

I had never in my entire life been as scared as I was that Saturday night, well technically early Sunday morning, that Kurt came running into our room screaming at us to wake up. “Finn and Lauren were hit by a drunk driver or something. They don’t know how badly they are hurt.”

I have never gotten up and dressed so fast in my life. I didn’t even care that Hummel and Anderson were in the room to see streak across to the closet butt butterball naked. Finn had been my bro so long and his mom had held me down, feeding me and shit when Mom just couldn’t afford to keep up with a teenage boy and Sarah that I was packing to go with him. It meant jack shit to me to blow off classes and every damn thing else to be there for them. But I got pulled up short. Mom and George, Sander and Angel Mom and Bent and Moms D all said that they would pay for us to fly out every Friday evening and return on Sunday as long as we didn’t miss any classes in between, and as long as we left this first full day for the families to not have to worry about anybody but them for right now, they would let us get Tike and Que’s air fare that next weekend too. We couldn’t say no. I mean, Carole and Burt and Ms. Laura and Mr. Ben had to need some time with their kids before all of us descended on them.

But that meant that after we helped Anderson pack for him and Hummel, got their tickets and we took them to the airport, we weren’t sure what else we could do to help. Santana texted us that she, Artie and Britt-Brat were going to the Catholic Church on our campus to pray and light a candle or thirty because just waiting wrecked her nerves and we decided to join them. We were there really early…apparently churches don’t really close. There was a priest there who let Sam and Santana give them their confessions. I’d heard about the whole penance and indulgences things Catholics have so I decided that when he finished with Tana I would talk to old dude too. I entered the little booth after Santana came out of the confessional. Looking through the mesh it seemed like the Father was a little verklempt, but probably he’d never taken a confession from Satan herself before. “Ahh. So I don’t know what to say other than what I’ve seen on TV. So like bless me Father for I have sinned. I’m not actually C atholic. I’m Jewish, but if it will help Finn be okay and Lauren too, then I will confess every sin I’ve ever even though about committing.” I said honestly.

I heard a chuckle through the partition. “Son, I can tell from that alone that you are a truly good person. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God. That is true of all his children, Christian, Muslim and Jew. So why don’t we leave these booths and we can just talk.” That worked for me. Just the few minutes I spent kneeling on that little board thing hurt. The priest had all six of us follow him into a room that was a lot more comfortable than the pews. “Now, what has brought all of you here at this time of the morning?” he asked after he introduced himself.

“Our friends…we all went to high school together and sing together in the glee club at school…anyway they were in a car accident…and it seems like it must be pretty bad because his dad couldn’t even drive to go to them and Burt is awesome behind the wheel. Plus too they his brother fly out there, not home but to where they are. Last minute airline tickets are expensive as hell, but they did it and Burt just let us pay for it and I mean we know that he would do it for any of us and he’ll pay us back if we let him, but Papa Burt hates having to borrow money or take charity of any kind. He hates it. When MaLiz-Beth died, he wouldn’t even let people bring him food…that’s how bad he is but he let us pay for Kurt’s ticket. But they wouldn’t let us come. If it is that bad, what will we do?” Cede babbled unconsciously voicing the concerns that we all had and were too afraid to speak.

“You will pray and you will grieve or you will figure out how to help him adapt and you will live.” Father Andrew Kiernan said sternly. “But what you will not do is grieve before the dying. Your friends yet live. Tell me about them.”

So that was exactly what we did. We told him a million stories about our friends. Mercedes told him about her manager and drying her hands on puppies, and how Lauren had her back the whole time. We told him about ‘Grilled Cheezus’ and Drizzle. We told him all about the wonderful mess that both of our friends were. As we talked to Father Kiernan, we found ourselves reminiscing and even realizing things that Finn or Lauren had done for us that we’d never really noticed. Also we were all texting with Kurt, once he and Blaine got to the hospital, he updated all of us with what he knew. Lauren would be okay in a few days for the most part. Her arm would take a while to heal, which would put her out of wrestling until just before the qualifying rounds for the NCAA championships. She would hate that, but at least she was going to be okay. Then it was just waiting on news about Finn. Around seven there was silence for way, way too long then Kurt came back to tell us what they had learned from the doctor. “Finn is still in critical condition…in the ICU in a medically induced coma. But if he makes it until Tuesday or Wednesday, then they will downgrade him to serious.”

Father Kiernan looked over all of us. We probably all had the same petulant, didn’t get what we wanted, pitiful looks on our faces. “This is not necessarily a bad thing. His body has been through a lot, he has some bad injuries, so he will get the rest he needs and not move and worsen any of his wounds, they will keep him under for a little while, probably a day or two. It could have been much worse. Come together, we will pray.” He gave us time to get our phones put away and hold each other’s hands. “Heavenly Father, we come to you today asking for the health and recovery of two of your children. Think, O God, of our friends who are injured, whom we now commend to Your compassionate regard. Comfort them upon their hospital bed, and ease their suffering. We beg for deliverance, and submit that no healing is too hard for the Lord, if it be Thy will. Your son Finn Hudson and your daughter Lauren Zizes. They have been injured by the bad choices and bad behavior of another and we ask your forgiveness for that person. However Finn and Lauren are very young and they have created a great family of friends. Please touch them with your healing hand Lord, allow it to be Thy will that they survive this car accident and go on to thrive that perhaps their testimony might bring others to You. We therefore pray that You bless our friends with Your loving care, renew their strength, and heal what ails them in Your loving name. Thank You, Lord.”

We all said amen and then we sat through their eight o’clock mass and headed home. When we got to the house, Bubbie Ruth, Saul and Mills were waiting on us. We’d completely forgotten that Mercedes was actually scheduled to sing at Beulah Wesleyan Methodist. It was the church’s anniversary and the pastor had gone to seminary with Cede’s home pastor and she was doing an A and B selection, which basically meant that she would be doing two solos on the program. We’d invited Bubbie, Uncle Saulie and Mills to go with us. Bubbie looked lovely in a rare A-line cable knit sweater dress that had long sleeves and was an even rarer shade of rose, Bubbie tended to avoid pinks. Mills dress was the exact opposite. It was a navy blue lace sheath dress with the peplum thing at her hips, and a v-neckline. It only had lace for sleeves, so she had a sweater on over it, under her coat. They were both wearing almost identical black high heels, but I had learned enough to realize that Mills’ shoes had a pointier toe and a thinner heel.

We raced upstairs to get dressed. At least the special Anniversary service wasn’t starting until one. By twelve thirty we were back downstairs dressed for church. Mercedes looked especially gorgeous, a delicious blend of hot and beautiful in a Ponte sheath dress that hugged each and every single one of her curves with a shallow V neckline and bell sleeves that stopped halfway down her forearms. Her ear lobes twinkled with simple diamond solitary earrings and her platinum cross shone above her sexy cleavage. From being around my boo and her boy Kurt, I knew that the dress’ color was a dark shade of hunter green. There were a lot of shades of green and blue, and Mercedes and Kurt had names for all of them. Even though dark, the shade of green looked amazing against Cede’s pretty brown skin. Her hair was pulled back into a bun type of dealy, which was kind of weird since she almost always wore it down and curled or wavy. Her makeup was a little heavy to hide the sleepless night. I was kind of surprised that Bartana had gotten dressed for church too. I had thrown on a charcoal suit with a white shirt and green tie…Funnily enough, without planning or even seeing Mercedes, both me and Sam were wearing dark green ties, though Sam’s suit was a deep chocolate brown. 

Santana, Artie, and Brittany had changed too. I was a little surprised that they were coming with us. It really spoke to how Tana felt about Mercedes, Finn and Lauren to get her into two churches on the same day. She and Britt-Brat both looked nice. Santana wasn’t in red, which kind of blew my mind, but she looked nice in a cobalt blue sheath dress that had those sideways pleat things pulling to the left at her waist. Her shoes were almost the same color as her skin and were high as hell, but she could probably run in them. Brittany was in a black, white and yellow kind of stripped or colorblock dress that ended at her knees and was pulled in at her waist by a shiny black belt. She had on ballet flats that were shiny and black like the belt. Artie had put on just a simple black and white suit with a plain black tie. On the way out we picked up Jamie and we all walked the few blocks to the church.

The service was it was beautiful. There was a lot of pomp and circumstance because it was the church’s hundred and fiftieth anniversary and they had gone all out. One of the best things about black churches when they really go all out was that the music was epically, cosmically awesome. That Sunday was no exception. The service opened with devotion where a man who was at least as old as the church was sang ‘Amazing Grace’. Then there were people talking and welcoming everyone and they told us about the church, but after every talker there was a singer or a choir. The first song after the old guy was sung by a pretty woman who made Mercedes look like a stick figure. But that woman had some serious breath control. I had heard ‘He’s An On Time God’ before at Cede’s church back home, but that woman she held some notes so long and so strong that she just had me on my feet and clapping even though folk were throwing me the screwface. I didn’t care, I loved me some black gospel music. Then after the responsive reading it was time for Mercedes’ first song.

For her first one she had worked with the choir but it was one that Cede swore was a song every black person had to know or they were kicked out of the black race and their black card was revoked. ‘God’s Tryin’ to Tell You Something’ was from The Color Purple, and having finally seen it at my lady’s behest, I now understood a lot more jokes black people told that no one else got. That movie was like the key to a whole section of their secret language. I focused back on listening to my woman lifting her voice in song. I really loved hearing her sing. We all did, but we were also all surprised when she didn’t immediately come down.

“Y’all, I’m gonna ask you to bear with me for a second. This morning my family got some awful news, one of my best friends, Lauren, and her boyfriend, Finn, another of my very close friends and the brother of one of my roommates, they were in a car accident this morning. So I’m going to ask that you all help me pray for them. I know that we’re here to celebrate the history and the longevity of this wonderful church and its amazing congregation. But I guess God put it in my heart to lay these woes at His feet. If you can bear with me just three more minutes. I need to sing this out or else it’s going to swallow me whole.” She started to sing an old song I have only heard once. When Grandma Mae had played it, it had been sung by a choir, but that day Mercedes Jones’ clear, awe inspiring voice filled the church. It washed over all of us in that moment.

She sang, “Oh, there was a woman in the Bible days, she had been sick, sick so very long but she heard about Jesus was passing by, so she joined the gathering throng and while she was pushing her way through, someone ask her: 'What are you trying to do?'”

On the beginning of the chorus, her voice cracked. I barely even noticed when Sam stood and his voice joined hers. “She said: 'if I could just touch the hem of His garment I know I'll be made whole'. She cried: 'Oh Lord, Oh Lord and Oh Lord, Oh Lord', Said: 'if I could just touch the hem of His garment I know I'll be made whole'”

Mercedes voice rose above Sam’s again, “Oh, She spent her money here and there until she had no, had no more to spare, the doctors, they'd done all they could but their medicine would do no good. When she touched Him, The Saviour didn't see but still He turned around and cried 'Somebody touched me'. She said: 'It was I who just wanna touch the hem of Your garment, I know I'll be made whole right now'

Suddenly something filled me in a way I was not sure I had ever experienced before then or since. “She stood there crying: 'Oh Lord, Oh Lord and Oh Lord, Oh Lord' Said: 'If I could just touch the hem of His garment, I know I'll made whole right now'” I lent my voice to theirs. We went through both verses and the choruses again all together. Something happened in that church that day, because neither Sam nor I needed microphones, and yet our voices carried to every corner of that church sliding over and along Mercedes’ blending into one.

It was really only when we finished and Sam and I sat back down that I realized that I was crying or that the musicians hadn’t joined in on the song. Instead we’d done the whole thing acapella. Someone behind me put their hand comfortingly on my shoulder and I saw that someone else was doing the same for Sam. When Cede came down the aisle to come back to us, everyone was reaching out to touch her hands, as if they too were trying to lend her strength and comfort. The MC stood up and took control of the service again. “Well, if I’ve never seen it before. I believe that we have seen the presence of the Holy Spirit here today. We’re gonna ask the Lord to bless their friends with His healing power, and thank Him for blessing us with their voices here today.”

Mercedes second song wasn’t until the space between the introduction of the speaker and the preacher who was giving the sermon. For that one she went with a solo, one that I had been blessed to hear her sing before. ‘I Look to You’ was even more powerful that afternoon in that Harlem church than it had been in the choir room at McKinley. Once again I was unable to understand how the hell Hummel could hear Mercedes voice singing anything, let alone a gospel song, and he not immediately recant his vow of atheism and believe that there was a divine being that had given her such a gift. The speaker did a sermon about Faith, with the capital F, and how God may not come when you call him, but he always comes on time. Near the end, he quieted everyone back down and he had them take their seats again. “Now, I’m gonna say something today in this church that’s gonna make some of you mad. It’s gonna have some of you leaving here saying that I’m crazy and not a good pastor and have missed the whole point of Christianity and need to carry my backside back to seminary. But I’m gonna say it any way. God wants his children to have faith. We all know that and can agree on that point. The scripture says that we just have to have faith the size of a mustard seed. But you know what? God wants us to have faith in Him and He doesn’t care if we call him Yahweh, Jehovah, or Allah. He wants us to believe in Him and His love for us. He wants us to show our faith in Him by loving one another. The Son he sent to die for us told us that He is LOVE, yet so many of us try to honor his sacrifice by hating. Hate in the name of God is the worse abomination there ever can or will be. So I’m gonna challenge everyone here to leave here today with love in their hearts. Leave here today with GOD’s love in your hearts and go forth and spread His love by treating everyone you meet with love and respect. Ms. Jones she just gave us all a wonderful way to start. We’re each going to spend the next days and weeks and months praying for the health, well-being and healing of her two friends, Lauren and Finn. We’re also going to ask that God grant his grace to KAMA and allow them great success so that the world may see that God takes care of his children even better than Satan does those children he manages to lead astray. Because we’ve seen her movie and heard her on the radio, so we all know that she didn’t have to come here and sing for us, but she did and she didn’t ask for a single thing but that we pray for her friends. So we’re gonna pray for her friends and we’re gonna pray for her and her men, we’re gonna put them in the never changing hands of the Lord, we’re gonna support them and help them get as high as the Lord means for them to be.”

The church was filled with an eruption of applause. If anyone disagreed with what he had to say they sure didn’t show it. They did the part where they said the doors of the church were open, and I couldn’t help but think they had been open all day. That one always make me giggle internally, because the Zilla may be enlightened and mature, but he still doesn’t giggle like a school girl out loud. Everyone sang a song called ‘Just as I Am’ and there was more prayer, where they prayed for the church, its congregation and Finn and Lauren. After shaking hands and receiving well wishes and prayers from a full half the assembled masses, we stayed for the repast after the service, mainly because we’d managed not to eat all day and the thought of walking home to cook or finding a restaurant was just too much to contemplate. Plus the food was awesome. It was weird though. Mercedes and Mills really didn’t eat very much. It was only after we got home that we found out that both of them ascribed to the ‘you can’t eat everybody’s cooking’ school of thought. They had basically made their meals from things no one could possibly mess up. I couldn’t tell you what was going on in their minds, every single thing I ate that day stuck in my mind as being fucking awesome.

Bubbie Ruth headed home as did Mills and Saul; those two were in the process of packing their apartment. Their house on Long Island was in closing and they were going to be able to move in as soon as the beginning of February. All of the rest of us went home and everyone showered and vegged out, chilling around the living room in our side of the duplex watching movies and trying to get our minds right to really start classes the next morning. It had been such a long ass day, no one felt like cooking dinner or even heating up some of the things we had in the freezer for times when no one wanted to cook. Artie called Jon and Ben and Ryan up and after they heard all of what had hit us today, the three of them put their funds together and ordered Chinese for all of us. That was really cool of them. Cede, Sam and I made it an early night. We were wiped and antsy at the same time.

After the day we’d had, it was no surprise to anyone that when we went up to our bedroom that night, all we wanted to do was relax and get our sexin’ on. We really needed to feel that reconnection to hold our loves and know that they were hale and whole. Sam drew us a bath with the good bath stuff, making it so hot that it kind of felt like we were trying to make Sucedes soup. It was kind of unusual that nothing popped off in the tub that evening, but we slowly and surely got clean, washing each other and ourselves. Once we were all satisfied that we were squeaky clean, we let the water out and dried each other off. I grabbed a bottle of Sam and my unscented Lubriderm and Cede’s super-moisturizing shea and cocoa butter lotion while Sam led her to our bed.

We laid her down on her gorgeous tits, with a couple of pillows under her head to make her comfortable. Sam and I each pumped a few squirts of the thick lotion into our hands and rubbed them together to warm the viscous fluid before we started rubbing our woman down. Sam started with her feet and I started at the nape of her neck. We rubbed the lotion in, massaging her muscles as we went. I took care of her shoulders, arms and hands before moving back and finishing off her torso while Sam moved up her calves and thighs our hands meeting and working together to knead and tease her sexy ass. Only when she was clearly starting to get hot did we help her roll over and we carefully lotioned every inch of the front of her beautiful body. Sam started at her neck and I started at her feet for her front I handled her hips and waist before joining Sam in moisturizing her big, sexy, lickable, bitable, tits and her hard little nipples that were just begging for our mouths. God, the sounds she was making had me hard as a fucking rock. Unfortunately, she had to make due with our fingers pinching, twisting and just plain fucking with her getting her hotter and hotter, until suddenly Sam declared that it was my turn.

The shit those two did to tease me was hot as hell but should’ve been illegal in all fifty states. Mercedes decided that the best way to get my back lotioned was to use her big, sexy tits to rub the cold ass stuff into my skin. Yeshiva, that felt awesome, her breasts themselves were so fucking soft but at the center of each her nipples were hard enough to cut glass. Sam’s hands were strong as they massaged my legs, his tongue soft as he tickled the backs of my knees until I was damn near humping the mattress. Of course that was when they made me roll my ass over. And they started up again, Sam at my neck, Sexy Mama at my ankles. They met in the middle and fuck all if they didn’t do their best to drive me out of my mind. Sam teased my dick with those pillows on his face while Hot Mama trailed hers over the head of my cock. Then I got to watch Sam slather lotion of Cede’s tits and he helped her turn towards me and together they wrapped her tits around my dick. They played my ass like a muthafuckin’ fiddle. Sam and Cede stroked my cock with her big soft titties until I was out of my mind. Just before I came all over the both of their sexy fucking faces, they stopped.

Sam and I switched places, much to my consternation. But I was at least vindicated by the fact that he was hard as a rock when he laid down on his stomach. I had a brilliant idea though and made him roll over. We lotioned his chest, abs, legs, arms and everything carefully, me using my hands and our boo using her big tits. We barely paid attention to his cock. That threw him for a loop, but I had plans man. When he rolled over, we really put those into place. Once we had actually achieved our primary purpose and lotioned his back side as thoroughly as we had his front, Mercedes and I coaxed him up onto his hunches with his face down in the pillows and his legs spread as far as he was comfortable. That opened his ass up and gave the two of us plenty of room to play. Thankfully Sam didn’t have a hairy ass, in fact, I don’t know if he shaved it or what, but he was as smooth as a freshly waxed car hood, and he always was. I used my thumbs to keep Sam's ass cheeks spread but they were so muscular, it was kind of like trying to keep a clam pried apart. I first used the tip of my tongue to flick across his anus but once my tongue dragged across the closed hole, I spent time using the tip to lick up and down. Only then would I go back to the other side. Sam's face was buried in the sheets but I could hear the muffled moans when my tongue would touch a sensitive spot.

While I was busy French kissing Sam’s asshole, our woman was licking and sucking his balls. Under the dual onslaught of sensations, he was putty in our hands. We could have been as evil to him as he was to us, but we were all crazy horny, so me and Cede decided to put him out of his misery. She scooted forward just a bit and engulfed the head of his cock in her hot little mouth. I coated a finger in my spit and pressed it into the still way fucking tight ring of Sam’s anus. I stroked his prostate a couple of times while I licked his ass out and that was all the fat lady wrote. He came like a freight train. He came so hard and so much that even our girl, with all the practice she had couldn’t catch it all. I moved down so that I could lick up the mess, which then led to me licking and sucking her tits until she was making promises she was never gonna keep. By the time I went to move further down, Sam had his face between her thighs, licking away at her honey and clit. We made her cum three or four times that way, her moans and groans and keening cries making me want to fuck her until there was no way to separate us ever again. We finally let her rest when she started trying to curl up on us. Sensing that she may have been becoming a little over stimulated, Sam and I let her have a moment, while we got condoms on our dicks and decided who was going where. She had about twenty-five or thirty seconds of peace before I pulled her on top of me and Sam helped her take me deep inside. It felt like she was still fluttering and pulsing around me.

Sam opened her ass up with studied ease, his fingers knowing just how to get her asshole ready to take him just as deep as her cunt had taken me. When he slid his dick into her heat, we both groaned in delight. She grew immeasurably tighter and her whole body came alive. We rocked together slow and steady, Sam and I kissing over her shoulder and then each of us kissing her. Watching as Sam kissed our wife, I had to fight not to cum too soon. Our lovemaking took on a life of its own. I’d never thought it was possible to be even more completely in love and completely in the intense moment of being joined and one with the two people who held my heart but in that moment as we came together I could only think that our love was truly transcendent. It transcended the physical and emotional until it became a soul bound spiritual connection. I blessed Yahweh for allowing us to experience a love like that. Then I blissed out and came so hard I think the condom popped and I know my balls almost exploded. I don’t remember anything until the alarms went off the next morning.

Cede and Sam had the early Monday classes that semester, I got to sleep ‘til seven before I had to get up and workout shower and hit campus. I didn’t share classes with anybody I knew, but there were a couple of guys in my Humanities of Western Music class that were cool. I tended to shy away from the chicks in classes now that I was fully committed to my boos. Chicks love to cause drama for the Zilla. So I figured as long as I stayed away from straight chicks and gay dudes, I’d be safe…not give them anything they could try and fuck me over with. It was working pretty well…there was a chick in my African American Studies class though that was gay as Hummel, I mean she was the level of gay Meg Griffin pretended to be on that one ‘Family Guy’ episode. Her name was, I shit you not, Rasta. Her mom had loved Bob Marley, but didn’t think of Roberta or even Marley, nope she named her Rasta. Rasta had shaved off her dreads as soon as she got to school, so her hair was about two inches long and she kept it fro-ed out and it suited her. There was another familiar face in that class, Rylie, the trans boy from the tour. I sat with the two of them in class and we decided that we’d be our own study group for the semester. That was cool, I felt all responsible getting my shit in order within the first couple of weeks.

Tuesday/Thursday was as hard as Monday/Wednesday/Fridays were easy. Me and Cede had to be up and out the door by seven thirty. We couldn’t eat before class because we’d have puked all over the place for sure. We got fifteen minutes of warm up and fifteen minutes of cool down separated by the most hellacious bastard love child of kickboxing, tae bo and aerobics that has ever been known to man. I was in shape, or at least I thought I was until that damn class. When it was over, I really could have crawled home and showered before hiding in the cover to recuperate, but I had Microeconomics an hour after the end of Hell. Cede went home and showered and got dressed. I showered in the locker room and threw on clothes, before hitting the dining hall and chowing down on whatever they had for breakfast, usually hit the line for an omelet, slip into the salad bar line and slap together a fruit salad with blueberries, kiwi and pineapple and finished up with lots of lean protein…they always had the bomb ass bacon. Microecon was a good class the crowd was pretty sausage heavy so I was able to relax there. My biggest problem, other than having to spend the morning in hell, was that there was exactly enough time to get from Columbia after Microecon to Juilliard for my practicum. If anything ever ran late or something, I was gonna be screwed.

That week flew by in a haze of classes, interviewing and deciding on our new band members, prayer, and waiting. Thursday evening we had a dinner meeting at Warner, so I had to get dressed for it after my locker room shower. Which meant that I spent all day in fitted, very fitted, jeans, a pullover sweater that I looked great in, but I usually preferred to chill in classes…and my boots and leather jacket. Sexy Mama and Sammyboy got out of their classes a full two hours before me, so they went home and changed before meeting me at school and we headed to Warner together. I wasn’t one to bullshit over stupid shit, so I could fully admit that Cede had picked out all three of our outfits for the meeting. If I thought my jeans were fitted, they didn’t hold a candle to the ones Sexy Mama had poured her sexy ass into. She was rocking that with a light purple, blousy, wrap-kind of cashmere sweater that had such a deep neckline she had a royal purple tank top on under it to keep ‘the girls’ contained. Her boots came up over her knees and were soft looking black suede with chunky heels…I made it a practice never to ask or try to figure out how much Babygirl’s shoes cost, it made my eye twitch to even think about the cost… those were no exception.

While it was only a twenty minute walk from Juilliard, we weren’t really in the mood for hoofing it, plus we kind of wanted to make a little bit of an entrance, so we took a cab to the offices. There were a few paps waiting outside, but we weren’t paying any attention to them, we were in a hurry. We were shown directly into ‘our conference room’ as I had started to think of it. Deborah already had the room open and a buffet of Mediterranean food. As soon as we had our plates, we got to work. Nick had finished his editing and we were seeing the preliminary finished products. The table was pretty full. The three of us, Deborah, Nick, Anika and Christophe, Denise Lee, Valerie Willthorne, Lyor, and a couple of other people I didn’t recognize. Lyor introduced them and their names sounded familiar…but they were corporate and while Sexy Mama knew who they were, I was polite and respectful but didn’t try and pretend that I knew who they were.

We all had like cards in front of us so that we could say what we thought about the clips, so we got right down to business. Nick showed them in reverse order. We had filmed ColorBlind in order, so it was pretty much exactly what we expected. It started with the really old fashion dance amongst the flowers, very colorful apparel scene. There were a few candid scenes that helped to make the happiness shine through, like one where Mercedes and her girls were clustered around laughing with her clearly the most beautiful one in the pack. Sam, Cede and I reclining on one of the fainting couches with her skirts spread out over our laps looking very much in love. Then the dancing started. While we’d danced on set they had played an instrumental version of the song so our dancing matched the music that was playing with Cede’s voice making magic. The dancing led to fighting. The fight dance didn’t look as fruity as I had thought it would. It was actually pretty beautiful. Sam and I stormed off in different directions. Cedes looked forlorn as she tried to go after one then the other only to end up alone. As the chorus ended, the scene shifted to the fifties look cocktail party scene. There was significantly less color in everything, the surroundings, the clothing and everything. Sam and I were holding court on separate sides of the garden with two different groups of men, Mercedes kept trying to build a bridge and bring us back together.

When the song hit its bridge, and Cede’s singing got hella intense and Sam and I were actually there a little bit too, that was when we were in our empty rooms. That’s what it looked like too, even though we were just in curtained off areas, it looked like we were each in individual rooms of dark gray. At one point I had touched the ‘wall’ separating me from Cede and she had reached out and touched me back, that shit looked eerie in the video. That part was almost black and white, everything was in shades of black and gray except the chocolate of Mercedes’ skin and her brown eyes, white teeth and purple lips. Sam was noticeably paler than me, but where my eyes looked kind of like amber, his looked like emeralds. It was stark and cool. On the last runs of the last chorus, the walls dropped from between us and we came together hugging each other hard as Cede’s voice softened and the piano died out.

Nick stopped the play back and opened the floor for discussion. “That was beautifully done, but it reminded me a little too much of Toni Braxton’s ‘How Could an Angel Break My Heart’.” One of the execs I didn’t know said quickly.

“No, the fifties type ‘Mad Men’ part brings it far from there. But could we edit it so that the video ends before the walls come down? It’s a heart break song…having them reconcile at the end doesn’t fit as well as ending with them still in turmoil.” Christophe pointed out.

“Was Mercedes showing too much cleavage in the shoot? I mean every time the camera was on her it was like ‘Wow, Boobies’. I worry about young boys watching this.” Another of the execs pointed out.

Lyor laughed. “And you wonder why we all think you’re gay, Clinton.” He shot back. “She looked beautiful. And so what if boys beat off over the video, do you not think they did so over ‘Single Ladies’ or ‘Wrecking Ball’ or every Nicki Minaj video ever. Sex sells, Mercedes’ just sells as subtle sex.”

It went back and forth like that for a while until final Ms. Lee spoke up. “The video was good. I give it a seven out of ten. Nice and strong for a debut video, but not something that they will never be able to outdo.”

Anika concurred, though she made a note that she still thought they should have gone bigger on Cede’s hair for the all black scene. Eventually everyone agreed that other than the one fix; they all liked the video ending about seven seconds earlier, before we hugged, better; that video was ready just the way it was. We all took a break, used the restrooms, grabbed some drinks and then got back to work watching the next video.

‘The Fighter’ was a whole different prospect. We had filmed so long and in such weird order we didn’t know what we were going to see. The video started with piano and guitar riffs, it showed us ‘arriving’ at school individually, it showed Sam’s bullying and life first. Starting with the hallway scene, then it showed him heading to the lunchroom, only to change directions at the last minute and hiding out in a janitor closet so no one would know he didn’t have the money for food. The video skipped time to the end of the day when he went home to the empty kitchen. He went back to school the next day, still fighting. That led to the beginning of Mercedes scenes. There she was in the cafeteria getting bullied by the cheerleaders…them knocking her to the floor. What followed that first scene was basically a montage of lunch times that were clearly hell for her. Then the cyberbullying scene came and it was interspersed with scenes of her that seemed to show her trying different fad diets until she was back in the cafeteria. That time she passed out and didn’t get back up. Then there were my scenes. They weren’t too bad to me because mine was the creation of Nick’s mind. Sam and Cede’s hurt more watching because, while I didn’t think things ever got that bad, that shit was pretty close to what had been their reality. Nick had focused the story on the three of us, but showed other instances of bullying, usually through me and my clique doing it. Throughout the video, Sam and I had been casting each other looks and both of us had been looking at Mercedes like she was a big ass drink of water after a summer day in the desert. During the bridge, he showed that most of the ‘bullies’ were gone over their victims…then there was a scene from the video of graduation Nick had gotten from Figgins…one would never have known that originally our robes were red and white, not blue and white.

When the last chorus hit, we were on stage in the club rocking out to a packed house with everyone in the audience loving us. I was shocked as shit when the lights came back up and more than one person looked at us as if trying to figure out how much of what they saw was the real deal and how much was faked. Sam sighed. “My family got hit hard when the economy crashed, but thank the Lord it never got as hard as the video.”

I nodded. “My dad was a horrible specimen of a human being, but he had the decency to leave us rather than take his misbegotten regrets or bitterness out on us.”

Mercedes looked down. At some point during the silence, Sam and I had both grabbed her hands. “Mine was fairly accurate for my first year at McKinley. I tried losing weight anyway I could, only ate in front of people who would comment if I didn’t…it didn’t work. I never passed out at school from those diets, just from the one drink and fast diet sophomore year. Santana and the younger Cheerios were more subtle than they were in the video, but the seniors my freshman year weren’t, so yeah, it was still pretty accurate. Glee club saved me. Granted, in reality I dressed a lot better.” She finished with a joke. 

It was gallows humor, but it broke the tension and allowed the break down commence. In the end it was decided to take out the scenes showing that the bullies were basically sexually harassing their prey, because the scenes made it look like the bullies were sexually harassing their victims. But other than that it was ready to go to.

We made it home that night to the news that the doctors were releasing Lauren the next day…but things weren’t so great for Finn. Over the course of the day they had taken him off of all the drugs that kept him in a coma. Usually they would have expected him to ‘wake up’ from the coma within a few hours. He hadn’t according to Kurt, his brain functions hadn’t really changed at all. Mercedes had already taken care of the arrangements so it was no problem for us to fly to Columbus after our classes on Friday. We ran into Quinn and James at the airport and Tike got there later that night. The whole weekend, we sat in Finn’s room and sang to him. When Cede sang ‘I’ll Stand By You’…we all cried until there were no more tears, then Lauren made me break out ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ so we could all smile again. Kurt and Blaine flew home with us so they wouldn’t miss any more classes but the parents kept to the original agreement, we were able to fly back on the weekends.

‘The Fighter’ video debuted while we were in Columbus. By the time we got back to Harlem, the video had over ten million views. Then TMZ broke a video of me singing in the shower after hell class one morning, sold to them by one of our industrious classmates, and the video jumped to over seventeen million views by the next morning. When the singles hit stores, it went gold in the first week. It seemed like January was a roller coaster of emotions and by the end of the month, we were all sick of the valleys and ready for a nice high plateau.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ****THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****


	13. I Don’t Know What To Do With Myself (The White Stripes), Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper) & A Dream Worth Keeping (Sheena Easton)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories!!!  
> This chapter is dedicated to ericasuniverse and Jades. Two of the long term reviewers of the Learning French Series.  
> I appreciate you all!

Chapter 13  
I Don’t Know What To Do With Myself (The White Stripes)  
Sam PoV

Time goes by really fucking slowly when you had no idea if someone you cared about was going to live or die. There were times when all we wanted to do was scream at the heavens for God to give us our friend back. Every time I saw the tears in Ms. Carole’s eyes as another day passed where she was walking on the edge of one hell of a sharp sword, I wanted to beg, plead and bargain with God to give her back her son and stop forcing her to wonder everyday whether he would wake up or pass on. During the week we went to classes. We found things to focus on so that we didn’t drive ourselves completely crazy. We handled the tiny little mini scandal that popped up when some asshole put a video of Puck singing in the shower in the locker rooms in one of the gyms on campus on the net. Fortunately, Uncle Ethan and Sandy Cohen had squashed the formal distribution of the ten minute video. And, with the threat of litigation and expulsion from school, the idiot who’d taken the video in the first place had been compelled to redirect his ill-gotten gains to a worthy charity. The school still suspended him for harassment and violating the same privacy policy they had called all us freshmen into a special assembly about right after we got back from Christmas break, but we didn’t have any control over that. We did keep to our agreement and not call for him to be expelled.

On the weekends we went and visited Finn…even though Finn couldn’t know we were visiting him, we went because not going would make it seem like we didn’t believe that he was gonna wake up and be Finn again. The second weekend he was taking his extended nap, the NHSSCA regionals took place, which the young crew totally smoked. The theme was ‘The British Invasion” since it had been fifty years since bands like ‘The Beatles’ had invaded the American music scene. The group numbers were led by Unique, Jake, Joe and the ND seniors. Unique led them in the Dusty Springfield’s, ‘Son of a Preacher Man’. Then Joe and Jake took the NDs through a fun, fast and raucous version of ‘Help’, which flowed pretty seamlessly into the Seniors; Kim, Justin, and some chick I didn’t know named Becca Wilde who was the Cheerio, Kitty’s, older sister; version of ‘With a Little Help From My Friends’. They didn’t quite as high a number as we had score-wise, but they had still come out on top and they had dedicated their win to Finn, hey that rhymed, and asked everyone there to please pray for him to get better. There was some hullabaloo about them mentioning prayer at a ‘school sponsored’ event…but people got over that pretty quickly.

That first weekend after the accident, we made sure that everyone was able to come and visit and see him…just in case, but the second weekend, me and Mercy’s birthday weekend, the five of us; me, Mercy, Puck, Kurt and Blaine, flew out by ourselves. Though it was our birthday weekend, we didn’t really feel like doing much in the way of celebrating. It wasn’t a very ‘happy’ time and things would have felt off doing a celebration in Ohio when Finn couldn’t be there. So we celebrated getting one year older in really the best possible way, by giving each other and our lover as many orgasms as the human body could physically take. Friday night, after dinner with the whole entire Evans-Jones-Puckerman-Altman family who had driven to Columbus to see us and to visit Finn too, Puck and I made love to Mercedes until she locked herself in the bathroom with a pillow and a blanket, threatening to sleep in the tub. The next night, they gave me a similar treatment.

I guess that we probably should have realized that us not going out and about on Valentine’s Day would be of interest to certain types of ‘news’ outlets. But I don’t think any of us thought that we were that big yet. We were relaxing in our hotel room at the Spring Hill Suites that was close to the hospital, when the Insider broke the news about our ‘disappearances’. “Music’s newest super-group KAMA, is in the midst of a tragedy in their camp. Music journalists have been noticing the trio flying out of La Guardia every Friday for the last few weeks only to fly back just in time for their classes at Columbia and Juilliard on Monday. The Insider’s own Keltie Knight investigated and found that they young singers were keeping watch over the hospital bed of a friend…Keltie.”

Kevin Frazier threw to a blonde reporter who was standing in front of an all too familiar building. “Yes, Kevin. I’m standing outside the Wexner Medical Center on the campus of Ohio State University where young Finn Hudson,” they showed a still of Finn from ‘The Fighter’ video, “is fighting for his life due to a near fatal car accident.. Lifelong friend, classmate and fellow member of the 2012 and 2013 NHSSCA National championship choir the New Directions, of the R&B/Country/Rock fusion group KAMA that burst on the scenes late last year, Mr. Hudson was involved in a major motor vehicle accident in the early morning hours of January twenty-sixth and has been in Wexnar’s ICU, in a coma, ever since. Those of you who follow college football will recognize Mr. Hudson’s name. He is the quarterback that led the Buckeyes to victory in the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day. The truck Hudson was driving and in which his girlfriend and fellow New Direction choir mate Lauren Zizes was a passenger, was hit head on by a BMW allegedly driven by Columbus City Councilman Andrew M. Paley.” They showed the same stock picture of the councilman that could be found on the city’s website, “Paley, a second term member of the city council, was seen at nearby Riverside Methodist Hospital and released into police custody that same night for driving while impaired and lewd and lascivious behavior. While Paley only suffered minor injuries, his passenger, who has been identified as area prostitute Quenwah Hunter, was ejected from the car and suffered was road burn over thirty percent of her body. She was also treated for a severe concussion and contusions on the head, stitches and a broken rib. Ms. Hunter was ejected from the vehicle upon impact and witnesses say that she was barely dressed at the time. Alcohol, marijuana and cocaine were allegedly found in Paley’s BMW. All three were also present in Mr. Paley’s tox panel which was run as a part of the ongoing, criminal investigation. An unnamed source at the hospital told me that all three members of KAMA as well as Mercedes Jones’ assistant personal stylist, FIT and NYADA student and step-brother of Mr. Hudson, Kurt Hummel along with his boyfriend Blaine Anderson, son of William Cooper Anderson, Jr. the head of Anderson Merchandizing, have been here every weekend, usually arriving early Friday afternoon and leaving late Sunday evenings.”

The screen switched back to Kevin Frazier in the Insider studios, “That is such a hard thing for anyone to have to deal with and to know that it could have been prevented. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Hudson-Hummel and Zizes families. We wish both Finn Hudson and Lauren Zizes, both, a speedy recovery.”

They moved onto the next story and Mercy and Puck were looking at me and each other with looks that conveyed every mixed-up emotion I was feeling in that motion. The Paley guy’s picture had been up on the local news the first weekend we’d visited Finn, so he wasn’t a new factor, but learning that the uptight republican city council member had purchased the services of a hooker…a hooker that looked so hoodrat that Adams’ baby moma would have looked at her and go “DAMN” like Smokey and Craig…was definitely a shocker. “I guess we should be glad that Uncle Ethan has already started the lawsuit…otherwise, there probably wouldn’t be anything left when his wife got done with him.”

Mercy nodded. But Puck wasn’t in the mood for comedy. He hadn’t really been in the best of moods since the accident and no one could blame him. Mercedes and I were Finn’s friends sure, but Finn and Puck had been friends so long that they shared a history no one could compare with. Kurt may have been Finn’s brother for the last few years, but Puck was the one who had been there when Finn lost several of his baby teeth in the same summer and Finn was the only person on the face of the planet not directly involved who knew who it was Noah had lost his virginity to. There was a bond there that no one could break. Hell, Noah had been the only one who had been able to figure out where the hell Finn had hidden Simple so that the dinosaur could be taken to the hospital room to stand charge over his sleeping owner. “That son of a bitch better be glad that Carole convinced Burt to go with that doctor’s suggestion of suing the bastard. I’d have rather we went with Burt’s idea of beating the son of a bitch into a coma of his own.”

It was my turn to nod. “If Blaine and Mercedes had kept them distracted just a little longer, we’d have made it out of here before they could’ve stopped us.” Thought honestly none of us thought that Burt would have let us help. He would not have let us risk our futures like that. Though you could lay money if he got any time alone with Mr. Paley one of them would be laid out quick, fast and in one hell of a hurry…and it wouldn’t have been Burt Hummel.

“Hey, I tried. It wasn’t my fault that Carole wasn’t hungry and didn’t want to take a nap.” Mercy grumbled.

That was true. She and Lauren had been the ones to find the information on the rat bastard for us. We would have been able to get at him since he’d been bonded out. But the mothers were determined that they were going to make bastard pay in a much less satisfying, but far more vicious way. “Is it strange that in the whole pissed off that they are seriously invading ALL of our privacy, it is still really kind of cool that they mentioned us on the Insider?” I got a pillow to the face for that. “Okay, maybe not. But that is not how one should treat a guy on his birthday.”

Their reparations lasted the rest of the night and we were a little tired when we headed back to the hospital the next morning. The nurses had bent the rules the weekend before to allow us all into his ICU room, even though at the time he still had breathing tubes and everything in him, but while he was down to just and IV and the ND tube, a tube that went in his nose and down his throat to his stomach that they fed him with, the nurses just couldn’t bend them that far again. So after we had sat and talked and sang to Finn for our half an hour, we went down to the pediatric oncology floor and after clearing it with the floor nurses, Puck and I played our guitars and the three of us sang every single kid song we knew. The kids loved it and wanted more. So then we did a few of our own songs…the kid appropriate ones…after that we took requests. We’d been down there for almost two hours before we realized how much time had passed. It really made us feel good to do something nice for those kids. They suffered so much and still managed to find joy in the tiniest of things.

When we went back upstairs, we were able to get in another thirty minute visit with Finn before lunch. We didn’t sing that time, we just listened to Puck tell stories, mostly to Finn, about the things they had seen and done growing up. There was the obligatory, broken limb skateboarding story, Finn’s left arm. The usual first fight against each other, second grade. The first fight for one or the other. The time Noah fought JBI for hiding Simple from Finn in the third grade. Listening to the stories, it seemed as if those two had lived in each other’s pockets until their lives started to diverge at McKinley. It was really cool, but it made my heart ache for my love even more. We had lunch with Kurt, Blaine, Lauren and Vince. It was still subdued. No one wanted to discuss the big ass elephant in the room…the longer Finn stayed in a coma, the less likely it was that he would ever come out.

Walking back to the hospital was interesting. There was a crowd of people out looking around like they were looking for someone. Someone happened to turn and see us and all hell broke loose. “PUCK!!!”

“SAM!!!” another set of fan girls yelled.

“MERCEDES!!!” several male voices boomed.

“Aw shit”, I muttered.

Vince wasn’t so circumspect. “Son of a bitch.”

“I am so not dressed for this.” Mercy groaned under her breath. Quickly, they had us surrounded and all we could do was try to placate them with smiles and autographs.

Security was on point though. They came out and helped us make our way through the small crowd. “We anticipated that when you guys were on the Insider last night.” One of the guards said as soon as we were inside.

“I’m glad that y’all did, because I never thought anyone would show up here. Don’t they have no home training?” I groused.

Both of the guards looked at each other and laughed. “Son, crazyfanitis overrules any and all home training.” The older black man said with a wide grin. “You guys are big and getting bigger. On top of that you’re overall good people. The nurses on the fifth floor have told everyone who will listen how you three went up there and gave those kids a morning that even if they don’t know who you are…still meant the world to them. Plus too, my wife is in love with that SongBird movie, she has dragged me to see it more time than I can count.”

“Oh, would she like an autograph?” Mercedes said with a smile that blinded all of us. She took a picture with him on his phone and signed autographs for both him and his wife, Shirley. He took pictures of all three of us and we signed something else, all three of us, for both of the guards that had given us a hand.

We went back up and spent the rest of the afternoon taking turns visiting Finn; praying, singing, talking and just being together and hoping against hope that he would wake up as soon as possible. We flew home, arriving in time for dinner. Jon and Jamie had gotten together to cook a nice birthday feast for Mercedes and I. Puck and our friends gave us our birthday gifts. My mind was still in Ohio, because it took me until then to realize that we hadn’t done the whole birthday gift thing at all. Thankfully I had ordered Mercedes birthday gift before life went tits up. I knew she had wanted a pair of really sexy boots, but I couldn’t get her those…‘never by a loved one shoes or they will walk right out of your life’…old southern proverb, or superstition, depending on who you ask…But I could certainly get her a purse. I went all in and got her one that was nice, expensive and had a musical connection that would make it more important than any of her regular pocketbooks. A vintage purple Fendi tote…after all ‘a Fendi bag and a bad attitude…that’s all I need to put me in a good mood…was wrapped and on a shelf in my closet. I ran up and grabbed it. The look on her face had been totally worth the money and the hour and a half I had spent trolling some poor soul on that online auction site.

Puck had given her three pretty lounging robes that looked way too pretty and expensive to call muumuus. He’d also given her two new bathrobes. One was to replace one that had gotten destroyed when he and I were feeling particularly amorous, and the other had basically been because he hadn’t been able to decide between form, a pretty teal and purple silk kimono, and function, a fluffy lavender terry cloth bathrobe. Puck had gotten me an awesome Swiss army knife that had a million and six different functions and a speaker for my tech that looked like an amplifier. Mercedes gave me a pair of brushed metal aviator shades that cost more than I was comfortable thinking about even after getting that first royalty check. Santana, Artie and Brittany had given me a Tennessee Titans hat and jersey. That was kind of awesome. The other triad had gotten Mercedes a pretty and expensive looking raspberry red chiffon scarf which she totally loved. Kurt gave me a Bvlgari Aqva grooming set, and Blaine gave me a subscription to some really awesome comic books. He was a damn good bro. They had given Mercedes her gift as a couple, probably because even I knew that a Ferragamo scarf was something special. The tenants had gotten together and paid for and cooked dinner so that was their gift to us. Which worked just fine to me. Especially since Jamie made fried chicken. That girl can definitely cook.

Monday morning came and we attacked the week with a vengeance. I might have complained a little but classes and working on planning the drop party were a pretty damn good way to take our mind off the worry. The next weekend was a repeat of Valentine’s weekend…however we made sure to travel back and forth to the hospital very early in the morning and very late at night. Security was boss and we didn’t have any more incidents like we had that previous Sunday. When we got off the plane Sunday evening and turned on our phones, it was to find the best possible news.

Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper)  
Lauren PoV

I hated seeing Finn lying so still and so broken. Since his breaks were all simple ones, he was in regular casts. When I woke up in my hospital bed the first time, my arm was in a sling and bandages. I had to heal from the surgery to fix the ‘open fracture’ do I didn’t get my actual fiberglass cast until right before I was discharged. I’d gotten to pick my color and went with the cutest thing I had ever seen and knew that it would have made Finn smile. I hated that he couldn’t look at my pink camo cast and fucking smile. He’d better wake up soon or else he would miss the damn thing and it itched like a son of a bitch so I wanted to get some kind of pleasure from it. It had signatures all over it. Vince, Kurt, Sam, Puck, Cedes, Tee, even the Unholy Trinity had all written something on it…but not the main person I wanted. 

Our friends and family had been great. They came every weekend, rain or shine…well snow or shine. Coach Bieste had been in twice with Mr. Martinez and Ms. Cochran. Even Sylvester had made it. She put little Jean on his chest and the baby had patted his face. Finn had a real love for kids…usually that would have woken him up from the soundest sleep. Unfortunately it didn’t work any better when it was Jean than it had when it was the Jones twins, and they both hit hard for their tiny little hands, or baby Gabe. I knew what everyone else called him, but Gabby needed one of her kids named after her.

It was a little surreal when one considered the fact that we made the news. The six o’clock news too, not just the after eleven thirty, Sunday night sports show either. The cops, supposedly, had been very careful not to tell My Dad or Burt any of the particulars about the asshole that caused the wreck. But 10TV, the local CBS affiliate, hadn’t been anywhere near as circumspect. We’d almost been able to go and put his ass into a persistent vegetative state… but the mothers had vetoed that idea. At least we all knew that Paley’s ass was not getting reelected anywhere in the state of Ohio. They took their Buckeyes seriously and putting the rising star quarterback into a coma meant that Andrew M. Paley wouldn’t be able to win an election for dogcatcher in his lifetime. I was good with that. I was also good with teaching him the finer points of the ‘Just Say No’ and ‘Don’t Drink and Drive’ movements through the administration of severe physical pain. I shook those thoughts off and started talking again. I brought him up to speed on the things the adults talked about when they hadn’t realized that I was paying any attention. “HiTwan are starting their inseminations tomorrow. I don’t know if you heard them when they stopped by earlier. They decided to give the whole dad thing another go. Hopefully the next one will be something approaching sane. Oh and remind me to pop Tina for infecting me with her crazy need to give every single couple a damn couple name.” I chuckled. When I ran out of gossip to tell him, I turned back to the book I’d been reading to Finn. I’d found this great series of books by a guy named Simon R. Green, and I’d started reading them to Finn, thirty minutes at a time since the doctors had first let me see him. We were all the way up to the fourth book, ‘Hex in the City’, by that day.

It was the last Sunday of the month. I had class the next morning. Cedes, Puck and Sam, Kurt and Blaine had headed to the airport about an hour before. It was almost time to leave when I looked up and noticed that ‘Who You Are’ Cedes and Jill Scott’s duet, was on, so I put the book away and turned it up. “I love this song.” I dropped the remote to the floor and swung around to make my eyes confirm what my ears had heard. Only problem was his eyes weren’t open. He was laying there, and his face was no longer completely insensate, but his eyes weren’t open. “Turn it up Laur…” he murmured groggily.

“Oh God, Finn!” I almost shouted. If I cried a little, no one could blame me.

His eyes finally cracked open, slowly. “Where are we?”

“OSU Med Center. We were in an…”

Finn groaned. “The accident. Are you okay?” His voice was a little garbled around the NG tube, but it was still the most beautiful sound I had ever heard.

Yeah, there were lots of tears on my face now. “Am I okay? You idiot. I’m fucking fine. It’s your crazy ass that has been in a coma for a freakin’ month. Why? Finnie…why on earth did you swerve so that jackass could damn near kill you?”

“Couldn’t let you get hurt.” He noticed my cast. “Guess I didn’t do such a good job though.”

I tried to tell him that he’d done a great job, but the nurse popped her head in and that was all the alone time we got. While the doctors checked him over, I called Carole and Burt and texted all the New Directions, past and present. It took only a matter of minutes for Finn’s parents to get to the hospital and join us. In that time there was a social media based and FaceTime celebration amongst our friends. Our Quarterback was awake and knowing him ready to get back on the field.

A Dream Worth Keeping (Sheena Easton)  
Burt PoV

Walking into that hospital room and seeing our boy awake was a feeling that was so gut wrenching, in a good way, so totally and completely relief inducing that I had gone a little weak in the knees. For the entire month of February our lives had been on hold as we were forced to try and find the halfway point between abject grief and normality. Carole’s job had been great they had this FEMLA type dealy in place where they distributed her hours as half unpaid leave and half paid leave. I had left my shop in the hands of my senior mechanic, a man who had worked for me for almost as long as I had had the shop. He’d come down to see Finn and bring me paperwork he hated to deal with, which gave me something to do in that sterile ICU waiting room. We barely left to go to the hotel and shower and sleep. We ate almost all our meals in the cafeteria downstairs unless Vince and Lauren made us go get some real food.

There was a day very early in the hospitalization, the Monday after the accident in fact, that I left the hospital for a very long length of time. I took a cab the four and half miles from the hospital to the Franklin County Municipal Courthouse. I wanted to be there when that son of a bitch, Paley, was arraigned. The cops hadn’t been as circumspect or discreet as they thought they had been when they had come to the hospital to take statements. I knew the asshole’s name. I kept it between me and Carole though. I knew that Finn’s friends and his Lauren would be dangerous if they had even the slightest information about who to blame for hurting their friend and brother. I waited most of the morning, I spoke with the lawyer for the state of Ohio who would be presenting the case to the court, then I killed time by texting back and forth with Carole keeping up with what the doctors said as they came in and out of our son’s room. Shortly before lunch Paley was called. He came in looking way too suited up and clean for me. His lawyer, who stated his name as the ‘defendant’s attorney of record’, was wearing a suit that cost more than I made in a month, before taxes. They read a laundry list of charges, including possession of cocaine and pot, operating a vehicle under the influence, solicitation, lewd and lascivious behavior and aggravated vehicular assault. There were a few charges that were still pending, and from the way she glanced back at me, drawing me to the attention of the judge and defense lawyer without saying a word, I knew that she meant they were waiting to see if they needed to add vehicular homicide to the list as well. Paley pleaded not guilty to the lot of them, which baffled me. According to what the prosecutor said, he’d blown more three times the legal limit and had coke and other drugs in his system.

The judge showed the same incredulity. “Mr. Paley…you do realize that with these charges in place, your ‘wet reckless’ charge from seven months ago will now be considered an OVI. You will not be offered another plea bargain.” He stressed.

Paley just nodded. He really looked like the kind of douchebag that had never really had to face the consequences of any of his actions. And didn’t expect to have to in the case at hand either. “Yes, your Honor.” He finally said when his lawyer poked him.

“Very well. I’m setting your bail at ten thousand dollars. Your preliminary trial is scheduled for a week from today,”

“Your Honor, My client would like to waive the Preliminary Hearing in this matter. We simply ask that you schedule a trial date for a date that allows us a suitable amount of time for discovery.” The shark said with a grin.

He should have been looking at the prosecutor’s face. That lady had been expecting that and was ready for it. The judge looked over at her and asked what she felt a suitable amount of time for discovery was. “Given that there are less than fifteen witnesses, including the first responders, and with the exception of one of victims, who is still in a coma at this time, they have all given statement over the weekend,” the defense attorney looked a little surprised. Don’t know why. The cops had taken Lauren’s statement yesterday afternoon. They weren’t playing around with this case. God Bless this town’s love for its Buckeyes. “I believe that ninety to a hundred and twenty days should be more than enough time to allow Mr. Sweeney time to assess the evidence and prepare his case.”

The judge nodded despite the fact that Sweeney looked like he wanted to object. “Very well, Mr. Sweeney, you have until the week of March thirty-first. I have an opening in my docket on April third. The trial will start at eight am.”

Sweeney’s smile looked a little sickly. “Thank you your honor.”

The judge called for a lunch recess and the prosecutor, Michelle March, came directly over to me. “Mr. Hummel, I’m sorry that you are going through all of this. I really expected him to plead guilty given the vast amounts of evidence in this case.”

“I didn’t know there were so many witnesses.” I latched onto the nearest thought I could grasp.

She nodded, opening the file and glancing down. “There were three other couples leaving the same event as your son and Ms. Zizes. They saw the accident take place and stopped to render assistance. And Ms Hunter is willing to testify against Mr. Paley in exchange for amnesty from her prostitution charge.”

“Can I, they tried to help Lauren and my boy…can I find out who they are…I know Lauren’s parents would agree with me that we want to thank them.”

She shook her head. “You can thank them in April. It could hinder the case if you contact them before their testimony.”

I guess that made sense. “Umm, when my other son’s best friend was assaulted, the prosecutor in Lima told us to have as many people as we could on the DAs side of the courtroom…”

She smiled wickedly. “If you can, please feel free. The more the judge or jury looks into the gallery and sees the family and friends of the victims, the more human the victims seem to them rather than just facts and figures. How is your son doing Mr. Hummel?” she asked quietly pulling me further off to the side just in case I needed the privacy.

I really appreciated not only her discretion, but the fact that she didn’t say ‘stepson’. I freaking hated that term. Carole and I had agreed when we first started dating that we wouldn’t marry each other until we could truly say that we loved both boys just as much as each other. Granted, both Kurt and Finn we such good boys it hadn’t taken us very long at all to love them each for who they were and as if they were always ours. “They are not pulling him off the meds that are keeping him under until Wednesday at the earliest. Originally they said tomorrow but there is some history in the family of substance abuse and addiction so keeping him under until his body has healed past the worst of the pain seems to be the best idea. He’s a fighter. I know that you wanted the extra time to see if you were going to need to add vehicular homicide…but you won’t. Finn’s gonna pull through this.”

“I really do hope so.” She reached into her portfolio. “Here is my card. Please give me a call when the doctors think he can give his statement.”

I went back to the hospital and let Carole have a break. We resumed out vigil. The kids from the glee club all came out that first weekend, even with the messed up circumstances and Finn not being actively present, it was a good weekend for them to be together. KAMA’s first video, the one from the movie soundtrack, debuted. Seemed like whenever we turned it to a music station, there were the kids. Seeing Finn all lively and himself in the video was a double edge sword though. You could almost see all of them hoping and praying that the music would awaken him. Sunday night, I put my foot down and Kurt and Blaine went back to their classes. Then he came back out bringing Cedes, Puck and Sam with him every weekend thereafter. After Finn didn’t come round within seven or eight days they had to put in a feeding tube, but they were kind enough to use the one Carole wanted…she said it was more temporary than the other version. She was able to take care of feeding him and she did other things to take care of him too. I don’t know if doing things herself for Finn, rather than relying on the Wexner nurses to take care of him, made the time a little easier on Carole or not. All I knew was that not being able to do anything to help, other than helping her change his sheets and positions on the bed, was driving me crazy. By the time they put in that tube, I had started reading to him from his text books. I figured that maybe he could learn subliminally or something. It gave me something to focus on other than wringing my hands and gnashing my teeth.

The days started to stretch on. The Insider did a story on the accident, giving the kids all his name. It was quite funny to see all the different plans they came up with to make sure that the asshole got what he deserved. I might have egged them on just a little, but they needed to vent and get it out of their systems. Lauren and Vince were there every single day. Kurt, Cedes, Puck, Blaine and Sam were there every weekend. The Fabray and Cohen-Chang girls called every other day, the Chang boy at least as often. Hell Adams had popped his head in more than once and Karofsky called as often as he could too. It did a heart good to see how well-loved Finn was. The Wednesday after Little Cedes’ birthday, they took Finn down for some tests and afterwards, his doctor asked to meet with us. “Mr. and Mrs. Hummel, we are still very hopeful that Finn will regain consciousness soon. However, given that he plays collegiate football…The longer your son stays comatose the less likely that he will ever be able to return to the field. Even if he comes out with all cognitive and motor function intact, a head injury like the one he suffered will only be exacerbated with the repeated soft and hard concussions that are emblematic of professional sports. I understand that he is at OSU on a scholarship and your other son is also in college so I do not know if your family will be able to keep him in school without the financial assistance football can offer…” he looked around as if there were anyone else in the room with us and dropped his voice. “Officially, it would be unprofessional and therefore I cannot say that Mr. Paley comes from a family of wealth and that you should perhaps look at litigation in order to force him to make up the costs…but I did notice that one of the men who came to visit your son said he was a lawyer so maybe you want to talk to him about this.”

Carole and I looked at each other. We hadn’t even considered that Finn might not be able to play anymore. “Are you talking about the research out of California about the effects of repeated head injuries?” Carole asked suddenly. “You remember Burt, Santiago was talking about it the other day. That Nigerian doctor is studying dead football players’ brains. You think…”

“I think that given the injury that your son experienced in this car accident, putting him back on a football field even in full pads would be asking for trouble later that could be avoided.” He told us quietly assured and confident in his assessment.

I nodded. “Then Finn just won’t play anymore. Can he still play flag and such with his friends?” when the doctor assured me that he could as long as they didn’t go crazy, I smiled. “Then he will be fine. He likes being part of a team. He likes being good at something…but what sport doesn’t matter. He’ll be happy to play in the backyard with his crew and once we banned Little Cedes from playing sports there haven’t been any injuries in the Hummel backyard in years.”

He took me at my word and Carole made me tell her the story about the time Kurt and Cedes had been playing flag football against some of the little girls in the neighborhood in the backyard. One girl had ended up with a broken ankle and another with a goose egg the size of an actual egg. It was a great story and even better to hear Carole laugh like that. That afternoon when Lauren and Vince shooed us off, I took her to get some real food and then took her back to our hotel room and made love to her just to make her smile. We called Antwan and he told us to contact Ethan Harris. Bent’s brother-in-law Ethan was as big a shark as anybody the douchebag Paley could hire. Plus he had taken the Ohio Bar when he was starting to work for Little Cedes and her boys so it was just a matter of contacting him. Which I did the very next morning. He was honest and upfront with me that he wouldn’t be able to file the paperwork until Finn survived. Otherwise he was going after Paley for wrongful death and loss of livelihood in a different manner. Either way he was determined to make Paley suffer. I asked him why and I could literally hear him smile. “Because MeDe already called and asked me how we could make him pay if the DUI didn’t stick. She cried Mr. Hummel. That drunk bastard made my favorite niece cry, for that alone I want to make damn sure that he knows that he should never have crossed that center line.”

Little Cedes has always inspired loyalty and love. She had been the daughter Elizabeth and I couldn’t have since the second time Kurt brought her home afterschool. I was glad that she had accepted Finn’s apology for being thoughtless and gotten as good a friend as she always has been to Kurt. After I completed my call with Ethan Harris, it had taken me a little longer than I thought it would since he’d only finally agreed to let me pay him his usual billable rate if he won and if he didn’t he would only take half of the two hundred fifty an hour fee. Something told me that if he won, he’d try for lawyer fees and court cost as part of the damages. Something else told me that his usual fee was probably closer to five hundred bucks an hour than the two fifty he’d admitted to. He was related to Dani and Cedes after all.

Hearing Finn’s voice drew me back out of the rabbit hole of my thoughts. I went over to my boy and just thanked the same Lord that once upon a time I had cursed until my voice went for giving him back to us. There were batteries of tests that had to be done but they had allowed Finn to remain in his room until his mother and I got there. Vince was right behind us and we all came in and celebrated until they had to take Finn down for the tests he needed. My boy was awake and he was himself. He had a few holes in his memory about the day of the accident, but he remembered all the important things so life was pretty damn good. By the time they finished the x-rays, MRIs and CT- Scans they had a regular room ready for us his buddies moved fast. ICU didn’t allow for flowers or gifts really, within twelve hours of hearing that Finn was awake and in a real room, he was flooded by physical well wishes from his friends and their parents, the guys at my shop, the nurses and doctors on Carole’s floor at St. Rita’s…my kid was going to be okay and he was well loved. What more could a dad ask for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all the readers and reviewers of this story.  
> I have heard and listened and Finn is going to be okay. 
> 
> However, in the words of Griff from Men in Black...'Where there is death, there will always be death'...so someone must take Finn's place in the hands of the Grim Reaper. 
> 
> Chime in now with your nominations for who should be offed in the course of this story. (The first fifteen votes will be the determination so get your vote in today.)
> 
> TTFN,  
> Anni


	14. Impossible/It’s Possible (Rodgers & Hammerstein Cinderella) The Prince Is Giving a Ball (Rodgers & Hammerstein Cinderella) & The Stepsisters' Lament

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ****THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****
> 
> Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories:  
> This Chapter Dedicated to MsLadyThankYouVeryMuch & OhNoRo, two of my long term Learning French Series reviewers.  
> I appreciate all of you.
> 
> You may well want to listen to the section title songs as you read in this chapter. I used the Whitney&Brandy 1997 versions myself. (Yes it was the soundtrack on the original CD…I know you are jealous)
> 
> Robert Funaro as Don Motta

Chapter 14  
Impossible/It’s Possible (Rodgers & Hammerstein Cinderella)  
Ruth Mayzer PoV

After Finn’s accident, once he was really able to concentrate on life other than praying…or whatever Atheists do when they want something…for his brother to be okay, Kurt asked me to lend Mercedes a hand in getting the planning finalized for KAMA’s first record release party. Though Deborah says that they no longer call them that. Now they are called drop parties. Groups are responsible for planning the events so that the parties reflect the ‘vibe’ of the musicians. That was true in theory, but the truth was that most people hired party planners. However, Mercedes hadn’t needed to do so. She knew what she wanted and simply needed help getting everything together. She and Kurt were a great team. They had only begun planning after they returned from their holiday break and they quickly had the bones begun. They had selected the date and booked the venue. The party was scheduled for the Ides of March, Mercedes found it hilarious that Sam swore that it was a bad omen. They were having it at a super technologically advanced auditorium that belonged to the New York Institute of Technology. It was on Broadway, so it was a perfect location for the party.

Planning the guest list was almost like planning one for a wedding. On the one side we had KAMA’s friends, family and associates, on the other were the industry people. There was some overlap. Like Mercedes made sure that each of the music industry stars who had spoken up on their behalf after the meshuggina little shmegegge Rachel had sold their beautiful engagement video to the highest bidder. And I don’t mean that she had Lyor or one of his people contact their people…no that was not good enough. She went through several days of trying to decide how she wanted to personalize her invitations for their first drop party. Ultimately, she had marched her happy little tuches into an independent print shop in Harlem called Patane Press. She spent thirty minutes working with their graphic designers to incorporate the KAMA logo into an invitation. They printed them for here there in house when she was completely happy with the design. Once she had a hundred of them she took the list and the invitations, complete with special envelopes and everything, to Lyor and had him send them to the music and film stars that had told off the pundits and talking heads and other people that had been kind to her like the celebrities who had taken the time to talk to the group the very first time they visited the Warner offices, the Weitz brothers and Malik Yoba. Puck and Sam had to pick up the rest when they were ready and they were sent to her fellow alumni New Directions, her friends and mentors back in Lima as well as every one of her parents’ colleagues in Amicitiae Amore.

There was one name on the list I had to question. “April Rhodes, Mercedes, the same April Rhodes who only has money enough to get her entry into anywhere worth going because she was a mistress who killed her richie rich boyfriend…” She cut me off there.

“Yes, Bubbie, the same April Rhodes. She may be a loud, crazy, borderline offensive gold digger, but if it weren’t for the money she gave to the New Directions, we’d have had to fold before we really got started.” After she said that, I could only check off her name and send the invite. The New Directions had saved my Noah and brought him to his loves. For her help in making all that happen, I would even be nice enough to hope she finds her next deep pockets. After we sent out all the ones we were sending, Lyor asked for any extras. There were about seventy-five left after we sent an invitation to every single person that Noah, Mercedes, or Sam had ever known. I didn’t even let myself wonder at the cost or even how many she had ordered. But Puck said that they had worked out a budget and as long as she kept to it, he wasn’t going to fuss the details. Warner was paying for several of the larger things like the venue and catering, since the party was technically a promotional event, but it fell into a special category that meant the kids were responsible for fifty percent of the costs rather than ten. Thankfully Noah, Sam and Mercedes had always had good heads on their shoulders. With catering and the venue taken care of that left them roughly seventy-five thousand they would have to pay out of their pockets.

While to a lot of people that would seem astronomical and like they could have whatever they wanted. Not my grandkids. They worked out a deal with Rangeman where the firm would provide security for the event at a reduced price and KAMA would add the company’s logo to the back of the event’s ‘playbill’, not programs but a ‘playbill’. Noah and Mercedes managed to find an up and coming bartender and mixologist company filled with people determined to make their mark on the New York social scene. They were educated, hungry and they needed the night to go well even more than KAMA did. For around five hundred bucks an hour, they would provide two bar captains, two mixologists, four bartenders and twelve waiters for the entire event. That was less than half most of the other companies they interviewed wanted to charge. Heck, Sam managed to talk the caterer into giving them the twelve person waitstaff at less than five percent above cost meaning the kids paid three hundred bucks an hour and each waiter would earn twenty-three dollars an hour as their pay. That was damn near unheard of…I didn’t believe him until I saw the contract. But it was there and both parties had signed off on it, so I was happy as hell for those people. In a lot of cases caterers charged an arm and a leg for the waitstaff, but only paid them ten bucks an hour at best.

Since KAMA was the star attraction that night, other than some surprise guest Lyor was very excited about, they had to find other musicians too, at the very least they needed an opening act. Thankfully between their classmates at Juilliard and Santana’s at Tisch, they had a large pool of talent to pick from. Okay, I auditioned them one weekend while the kids were visiting Finn. I loved music and I really didn’t mind doing it. It gave me a great way to feel like I was doing something to make things better for them while they worried about Puck’s oldest friend. I narrowed it down to three, and sent the kids recordings so they could pick the final solo artist or group. Besides I was having a blast. I took as much off their shoulders as I could. They had a full course load at Columbia and a half load at Juilliard. They were working, three nights a week, with the new musicians to become a cohesive, seasoned unit. They were flying back and forth worrying and fretting about their friend. I wanted to help them so they didn’t burn out.

One of the things I did to help was working with NYIT’s designer to create the ambience for the night, the lights would be slightly colored to give the pristine white walls a wash in a shade of steel gray blended with just lighter than eggplant purple that was exactly like the group’s logo where the color bleed happened behind the name. The Atrium would be lined with tall, thin glass and metal tables one foot apart atop the glass there would be a slim crystal vase each containing one purple cascade orchid and a long, tall stalk of bamboo…simple and minimalist. Those tables would serve as a runway leading them to the stairs that took them down to the Concourse. Once the guests entered the Concourse, the steel gray was lightened and more of the purple introduced into the lighting, the tables grew larger and people would be able to congregate around them as they enjoyed the seven different passed hor d'oeurves that Noah, Sam and Cede had picked during the catering tasting they’d had the fourth Friday they were flying before they flew to Columbus to visit Finn. The concourse would also hold the two bars which would be serving a variety of sodas, juices, beers and wines and three signature cocktails and a signature mocktail. On either side of the room would stand the two CD and merchandise stations.

Noah had been in charge of the Merch. He had the expected tee-shirts and plastic case openers, but he hadn’t stopped there. He had ten pairs of male and ten pairs of female Vans decorated with the band logo. He had logo embossed ‘song journals’ and CD holders, but it was the KAMA condoms that took the cake. He had wanted to have his and Sam’s penises casted and made into dildos that their fans could buy, but Mercedes was having none of that. Thankfully the reality was that they really didn’t have the time it would have taken anyway. After the guests mingled for a while, they would head down to the auditorium where they would be welcomed by KAMA then hear the opening act and then KAMA would do half a set. The way Anika, Christophe and Mercedes had planned it, after the first half set there would be an intermission where people could go back out to the concourse and enjoy the four different passed desserts and have some more drinks then come back and be entertained with more music form KAMA and their special guest. After the concert, the guest would be given more time to mingle and they would be able to choose between any of the passed food that was left, hor d’oeurves or desserts and enjoy the bars. It would be during the after concert mingling that Noah, Cede and Sam would finally be able to greet their guests.

The after party was scheduled to be at The Place. The whole place was going to be redone after they closed that night, transformed from a trendy restaurant to a minimalist lounge and dance club. Roman had convinced the owners to give the kids the restaurant for four hours no food, just an open bar for a great deal. He talked things over with Mercedes and her crew and he was great about handling things through email and skype and praying for their friend with them. We had all scheduled a shopping trip to get the girls, and Kurt, kitted out for the event the first Saturday in March. However, late Sunday night, Noah, Sam, Mercedes, Santana, Brittany, Artie, Blaine and Kurt popped up at my door. “You know when you guys helped me move in, we all promised that since we were only three blocks apart, we’d call before we came over.” I teased as I opened the door.

“Finn’s Awake!” eight voices called out as one.

I happily ushered them in. It was the best possible news. “Is he okay?”

They nodded. Artie’s smile was huge. “The tests all came back showing better results than they had hoped for after him being out so long. For the most part his motor skills are good…he’s having some trouble with his hands though…the doctor suggested getting him some of those wide barrel pencils to work on his fine motor skills. But he can still use a knife and fork okay.”

“It’s Finnonence. Let’s just keep it real…nothing is going to stop him from eating.” Santana joked. It was easy to see that, despite the taunting tone of her words, she was ecstatic at their friend’s recovery.

“Well, he had to get better. I asked all my classmates to pray for him and Omar prays five times a day. So That means that God was prayed to in all three names he goes by. Allah, God and Yahew…oh and maybe Buddha too. I think the Asian girl in my contemporary dance class is a Buddhist.” Brittany said with a smile. “I know that they are all different names for the same God, but I really think having prayers all sent to four of his names helped convince her.”

In the six months they had been in New York, I had been around Brittany enough that I was no longer surprised by anything that left her mouth. That day was no different. So as always, I decided to just roll with it. “I take it that you all wanted to go back and see Finn this weekend.”

They all nodded happily. I didn’t say anything against them going. I knew that it was something that they really needed to do. “Mom and Dad say that we can pay for Tina and Mike to come too. Quinn said that she hadn’t done any shopping or eating off campus for the last month so she can get her ticket herself. So we’re all going to be there.” Mercedes said happily.

All of a sudden Kurt stopped and looked at Mercedes with a weird look on his face. “You had planned to go and get your dress for the drop party this weekend. We took care of the performance looks weeks ago, but you had pushed finding your red carpet dress back as far as you could but it needs to be bought this weekend in case you need to take it in at the waist, like you most probably will.”

“Oh Shit.” Mercedes whimpered. It was easy to see that she had completely forgotten about that. “Kurt, I can look in Columbus. We already bought the tickets.”

“You are not going to find anything Music Industry Party worthy in Columbus, Ohio.” Santana pointed out.

“Well then I guess I will have to look after classes Tuesday and Thursday evenings.” She reasoned.

Noah was looking at me crazy. “Hey, Bubbie...wait, first…Kurt, you’ve got Sexy Mama’s measurements and sizes all up to date and everything on one of your flash drives, right?”

I think Kurt where he was going before the girls did. “Yes, of course…Santana’s and Brittany’s too.”

“Bubbie, would be willing, I mean I know the girls all trust your style and everything. Plus you totally do this for a living any damn way…Could you get the girls dresses for the evening?” he begged. “You don’t have to worry about coming out of pocket. I know they have their duckets in a row.”

Mercedes nodded emphatically. Santana looked like she was about ready to drop to her knees and beg and Brittany, she just went straight up puppy dog complete with a pout. I couldn’t say no. then another thought entered my head. I would have to do it and have to be successful. They had mid terms the week before the drop party, Mercedes would need all the time she could get for studying. “Okay, I will do it, but…what I get for you…you’re going to wear.”

“Of course…you know that we totally trust you.” Brittany said happily. “You’re as awesome about clothes as I am when it comes to dancing.”

That was high praise indeed. I nodded. “Okay, Kurt, remind me, Cede wore red to the SongBird movie premiere right?”

He shook his head. “No, she wore red to the soundtrack drop party, she wore black over emerald to the premiere.”

“Okay…can you email me the sizes and measurements and the colors each of the girls wore to the two events they have gone to so far. We don’t want the photographed in the same colors at major events twice in such a short span of time. I would absolutely love to see Santana in something a little outside her usual color palette… Actually, include any of the guys who don’t already have their clothes purchased.” I shook my head. I would text Mills and drag her with me even though I knew she would hate it.

“That should be only Sam and Puck. I took care of Blaine and me when we were shopping for the SongBird premiere. Artie showed me his outfit earlier when I got home tonight…Oh, could you scoop up Jamie? She was supposed to take her shopping with us.” Kurt asked politely.

I nodded. “I’ll take Mills and Frankie with us too.” I smirked at the nickname I had rechristened Francesca with once I found her presence bearable. “I still cannot believe that Francesca Jarrard is going to be my niece.”

“Neil proposed?” Noah asked in surprise.

I shook my head. “Not yet, but he wants your uncle to go ring shopping with him soon.”

“Big step, they haven’t been together a year yet.” Santana commented.

“Tana, when it’s right, you know. There isn’t any point in waiting once you’re sure it’s right.” Brittany chided.

Mercedes changed the subject. “I have the extra invitation Mills asked for for her last roommate. I look forward to meeting Nadia. Madeline and Mills are both awesome and Francesca kind of grows on you…now that she has a man she is satisfies with anyway…I’m guessing she has to be cool.”

“I just want to watch you two meet.” Noah said with a dirty leer. Ever since Saul told the boys that Mills friend Nadia worked as a fetish model their minds had stayed completely clouded by lust.

Mercedes swatted him, but she knew that he wasn’t the only one thinking it. He was just the only one foolish enough to say it. I happened to look up and see the big clock on the wall above their heads. “Kids, it’s almost twelve thirty and you all have classes in the morning. I will take care of you all, I promise.”

Hugs were exchanged all around and Kurt told me that he would send me what I needed. By Tuesday morning I had his full portfolio of sizes and measurements. It also gave me email addresses and things like favorite colors and preferred designers. His information wasn’t just comprehensive, I couldn’t have done better myself, it was well organized and it included people like Carole, McKinley’s foot ball coach and Sue Sylvester that I was salivating to get my hands on as far as changing their modes of dress. I scheduled appointments with dress departments at Saks, Barneys, and Neiman Marcus. I had helped my grandbabies and their friends because I knew that they needed it and it definitely looked like I was being well rewarded.

 

The Prince Is Giving a Ball (Rodgers & Hammerstein Cinderella)  
Multiple PoVs

Deborah Jergens PoV

Organizing a drop party for a debut album has never gotten this much attention from Lyor Cohen and his staff. It just went to prove that KAMA was seriously his baby. Granted they were also doing better than any unknown new group in my memory. Their debut video ‘The Fighter’ had debuted at number five on every station that still played music videos and reached number two before it got knocked back to number three when ‘ColorBlind’ debuted a month later. Within the month before the second video hit, we had already recouped our costs on both videos twice over just from the proceeds from the Youtube views and in store single sales. Lyor had made back his entire person investment, Sam Evans’ education expenses for five years of schooling at Columbia within twenty four hours after ‘ColorBlind’s video hit the air. Other record companies were scrambling to find actual singers again and to repeat something that I was fairly sure was not repeatable. The only other label that wasn’t worried was Empire Records, but that was just because Lucious Lyons always went for talent…he could craft an image, but no one could give talent where it didn’t exist.

The Monday after the second KAMA video dropped…the day before the single would be for sale in stores…Lyor called me into the office. “Mercedes, Sam and Puck have seven siblings under sixteen that I want you to arrange a baby sitter for for the fifteenth.”

I looked thoughtful for a minute. My friendship with Ruth Mayzer had given me a lot of insight into their family dynamics and that number didn’t sound right. “I will make the arrangements, but I think it will need to be for ten or eleven under sixteen. Their daughter Beth, her adoptive mother has been invited, as has Sue Sylvester who has a daughter younger than Mercedes’ baby sisters, but older than Sam’s baby brother, and then there are the children that one of Mercedes’ cousins named for her and the boys. I’m eighty five percent positive that they invited her too.”

Lyor Cohen was one of the best bosses in the industry because rather than being angered that I had corrected him, he appreciated the fact that I gave him information that he needed to make an informed decision. “Get the name of the best agency in the city. Ask some of the moms on the floor how many nannies they would suggest for twelve children ranging from twelve to what six months?”

“No…Three I think. Ruth canceled a lunch date in December to be there when Sam’s baby brother was born.”

“Get names, ages, genders any food allergies or special needs and find out how many nannies we’d need for them for eight pm to noon the next day. If the parents want to go to the after party, they should be able to.” He said thoughtfully. “Then hire as many people as are needed. We can put them up in the Warner corporate apartment at the Morrison or one of the suites we keep at the Plaza. Let me know when it is all arranged and I will let the Jones and Evans know. They can take it from there.” I nodded and took that as my dismissal. As I stood to depart, he stopped me. “I know that I do not have to remind you that I want all members of the KAMA team here at Warner to attend. I’m fairly sure that in Sam, Puck and Mercedes’ eyes that will include those interns whose brains they picked about the video concepts. Make sure that they both have something appropriate to wear. Ask Anika to help them as a personal favor to me if they need help.”

I left for sure then. I was going to have to spend at least an hour or two begging help from the working mothers in the office and it would take me at least half as long to figure out which ones of the interns had been there that day. I was wrong; it took me only fifteen minutes because they were both Christophe’s interns. He called Tony and Gina into his office for me so that I could issue the invitation to attend and ask them if they needed any help with getting outfitted. “Umm. I don’t think I have anything that would work. I have a few club dresses, but they are…well they are all black and pretty not fashion forward. Mercedes struck me as the kind of person who would smack me upside the head for even buying one or two of them.” Gina said honestly.

Tony, however, quickly admitted to being an absolute clothes horse and swore that he was covered. Christophe called Anika in and after she realized that Lyor had made the request, she was game to help. I sent them to Macy’s with the corporate card and a budget of three hundred bucks, including accessories and emailed Ruth for all the necessary information I would need to plan for every contingency. The I went back to trolling the moms for advice. Ultimately they suggested that since there were three kids who were old enough to lend a hand, I could do with four babysitters, but that five would be the ideal, They also said that The Plaza suite was a bad idea and have them babysat at the four bedroom corporate apartment at the Morrison since there were so many different age groups present. One of them even gave me the number for their nanny service, which offered babysitters and was considered to be the best service in the city. After the very helpful executive mom left, my secretary stuck her head in with her own advice. “You know I don’t have any kids of my own yet, but I was the eldest of five and my mom was a single mother who worked three jobs…” she explained before she sat down to give me her advice. “I’m sure that you guys will plan on having at least dinner and breakfast delivered, but whoever you send to prep the apartment, make sure that they leave tons of fruits and healthy snacks and a few fun ones too. Kids at the age of the older kids are constantly growing…the toddlers are even worse. They will eat dinner and then fifteen minutes later be hungry again.

“Would you be willing to send me a list of the kinds of snacks they will probably like? When I was ten I think I was addicted to Little Debbie oatmeal cream pies and would only eat real food so that I could have them…but I don’t know what is popular or even available for kids today.” I asked politely.

Lacey nodded. “I’ll do you one better, I’ll take care of stocking and prepping the apartment myself on the fourteenth. What is the entertainment like there?”

“Huge ass TV, full score of premium channels, unlimited pay per view…at least one video game system, though I don’t know which one. You can check with Greg down in Client Services. He should have the full list.” I answered.

“Okay, I’ll also get the safe search codes do I can lock down the adult channels.” She muttered.

“That would be best. And maybe see if we can delete the escort services from the speed dial on the apartment phones, just as a precaution.” I whispered quietly. That was one of those ‘client services’ that it was best that few people knew we provided and kids were always curious.

“Will do, Boss Lady.” She mock saluted as she exited the office. I booked the babysitters, five of them…better safe than sorry. Reading though the materials on Absolute Best Care’s site I decided that having them on retainer for the future wasn’t a bad idea. Considering how often some of our Artists traveled with their children, I was a little surprised that the issue had never come up before. Shooting Lyor an email detailing all the information provided by ABC, Ruth Mayzer, my secretary and the other moms I had spoken to, I was satisfied that I had completed the special project to the best of my ability. Apparently Mr. Cohen felt the same way based upon his reply email. It was with a smile adorning my face that I went back to planning the A&R showcase event we were planning for June.

 

Finn Hudson PoV

I still had trouble believing that I had been in a coma for month. I awoke on a Sunday evening from what seemed to a really good night’s sleep. I was groggy at first, but I heard Mercedes singing that song from her movie…I love that song. I remembered hearing my parents and Kurt talking and Lauren and Vince. And all my friends, and like when you’re really asleep, it all got incorporated into my dreams. I didn’t understand why I would dream about my classes but with Burt’s voice coming out of the professors’ mouths, but I just chalked it up to dreams being weird. After getting every medical test they could do, they had thought I was perfectly fine. But then they gave me one last test that wasn’t actually supposed to be anything hard. I was seen by an occupational therapist. I could still read. I still knew basic maths. Then they wanted me to write down my name. I did it, but it looked like I was four. I just couldn’t get my grip to work right. It sucked, but according to the doctors and nurses, I was a lot better off than I had any right to expect after being comatose for thirty-two days.

The day after I had been moved into a regular room, Mom, Burt and me had to meet with the doctors and they went over what changes and accommodations I would need to make. “There is good news, not as great news and some sort of sucky news.” The doctor said with a smile. It was a woman doctor who looked to be a little older than Burt. “Which one would you like first?”

I shrugged. “I guess the sort of sucky news.”

“Alright, I don’t know if your mother and stepfather have had a chance to tell you yet, but it would be ill advised for you to return to playing football. Your head injury was severe enough that any further major head injuries could result in a persistent vegetative state at best and in death at worse.” She said gently.

I think I blinked three or four times. “Well, I don’t really want to play after college anyway. Would I still be able to coach maybe?”

She nodded. “Yes. Coaches are rarely ever in the line of danger.”

“I guess that I can work for a year and then go to college at the Lima campus. Oh, I guess I’m pretty screwed this semester?” I realized.

Burt smiled and shook his head. “No. Your professors are willing to help you get caught up and if you can pass your midterms, you don’t have to withdraw since this year is already taken care of with your football scholarship. We are working on making sure that you can be back here on this campus for the rest of your college years.” He assured me.

That was really, really awesome. I was really glad that I would be able to at least finish out the year with Lauren. “What is the not so great news?” I asked the doctor.

“The not so great news is that given your impairment with your fine motor skills, you’re going to have to do occupational therapy, probably for six months but it could be longer if needed.” She told us efficiently. That didn’t seem so bad, not considering what could have happened.

“Okay, will I be able to do it early before classes, or later after classes?” I asked her curiously.

“Yes, you should be able to do your therapy around your class schedule no problem.” She nodded. “Okay, finally the great news, we’ve evaluated the results of all your tests. You were in a collar while you were in a coma, but the X-Rays showed us that your vertebrae were fully healed, so we removed it last night. We can schedule leg and arm your casts for removal early next week. We’re going to keep you until Friday and then, if there have been no new problems, we’ll send you back to your dorm and let your parents finally go home and sleep in their own bed.”

“That is great.” I sighed. The food was horrible and so far that was just the broth I was allowed. How hard is it to get broth right? Thankfully, the next afternoon I was slated to be moved up to soft foods, and Mom had promised to get me real Cream of Wheat for breakfast and yogurt and pudding to go with my lunch. I felt bad because they had been here for so long. But it was great to know that I was really well loved.

Mom looked at the doctor. “Umm, would it be okay for him to go to his friends’ record release party the weekend of the fifteenth? It’s in New York and it would mean everything to them if he can be there.”

“Ahhh…KAMA. The nurses and doctors down in pediatrics love all three of them. Given that your head trauma is actually almost a month old, as long as you are well rested, stay hydrated and pick the shortest flight you can get, you should be fine to fly. However, if you develop a headache that cannot be abated by an over the counter pain reliever, you should seek medical attention.”

I was relieved. Lauren and Vince had caught me up on everything that had been going on while I ‘slept’ and I had seen the video. It was cool. I hadn’t wanted to ask. I was just going to go. But it was good to hear that I wouldn’t hurt anything by getting on the plane and going to hang out with my rock star friends. I was awake, Lauren was going to be fine, and I knew that my family and friends really, really loved me. I didn’t know what I had done in a previous life to deserve it, but I was really feeling blessed. I probably needed to stop calling Him Grilled Cheezus in gratitude.

 

Don Motta PoV

I loved my daughter more than all the money in the world. She meant more to me than any deal. That being said when the invitations came in the mail that invited her and all her glee club friends to a music industry party in Manhattan, my very first thought wasn’t that is should make sure that she could go because it would make her happy. My very first thought was that if I could work everything correctly, I’d be able to pack my midtown hotel location, a little boutique hotel called Chambers, during the absolute worst month in the season, all while making my little girl happy. I sent all their parents an email letting them know how they could book rooms, offering them ten percent off and to pay for half the kid’s flights. Hell I even sent them the airline and flight numbers they should book. The whole thing would cost me less than two-hundred bucks per kid and yet it would bring in three hundred dollars in pure profit each. Yes, it was one hell of a deal. All of the parents went for it. Since most of the kids were able to bring one parent with them, and I was only helping with one room each and the kid’s flights, I would make even more.

I had just gotten off the phone with the manager at Chambers, when my phone rang. “I’m sure that Jennifer Holliday invited your muppet of a daughter. Were you going with her?” Sue said in place of a more common greeting.

“My daughter isn’t a muppet,” even if she sometimes dresses like one. “And yes, I’ll going to New York with her.”

“Is ‘Sugar’, please tell me that she has a real name and that is just a nickname you’ve bribed the school board into including as the only name on record?” she grumbled.

I loved intelligence in a woman. Should never have listened to my father who swore that a smart woman was always trouble. My first wife was evidence that stupid women were trouble too…more trouble than they were worth. “My ex-wife named her after her grandmother. It was much worse than Sugar.” I admitted.

“Ex-wife…right. Aw well she got what she deserved, some parts of the world they still stone people for adultery.” Like I said I loved a smart woman. “Anyway, let Sugar stay with one of her buddies and you and I can bunk together.”

“What about little Jeanie?” I asked…that little girl was every bit as cute as Sugar had been at that age and even sweeter. I loved her as if she were mine. I should never have let my idiot of a first wife convince me to have that dumbass vasectomy.

“She’s coming with me, but as I understand it there will be a babysitting service provided for us the night of the party. So one night she will be with us, unless you have a problem with that.” Sue asked knowing the answer to that.

“You already know how much I love that little girl.” I returned with a smirk. “When are we going to stop sneaking around Sue? It was fun in the beginning, but I’m ready to let Sugar know that we’re seeing each other.”

“You don’t think it will make Sugar uncomfortable?” she asked quietly.

“Sugar will be fine. She may pitch a fit for a moment or two, but she will get over it. Then we can call your daughter a muppet too because she will dress her ‘little sister’ in matching outfits.” I challenged.

She was silent for a long moment. I looked at the phone to make sure that the call was still connected. “You think if we tell her just before the flight she’ll be over it by the time we land.”

“Damn, I love an intelligent woman.” I said with a big smile. “If not we can take her shopping at Saks. Speaking of shopping, you have something to wear?”

She told me a great story about how Mercedes Jones and Kurt Hummel had made her over and they did a Madonna salute video. “There was a lace and satin jumpsuit that Mercedes found for me…it was long enough and everything. I’m wearing it.”

“You know those heeled booties I talked you into when we had that evening in Columbus when Danica kidnapped Jeanie?” when she answered in the affirmative, “wear those. They can be part of the celebration while Jeanie is at the sitter and Sugar is with her friends.”

“I’m gonna hold you to that Motta.” She growled.

God was rewarding me for something…maybe it was for endowing the repairs at that cathedral in New Orleans that had been damaged by Katrina. I had been working on getting Sue Sylvester as a permanent fixture in my life for several months. I was about six weeks ahead of schedule. It made me want to do something really nice for KAMA. I believe that William Bennet still owed my cousin Gene some gambling debts. Maybe I can bring that to bear and get one of the conservative pundits on their side. Yeah, that would be a good way to repay the debts I owed. I went online and found Sugar a dress she would like and I could stand to be photographed standing next to. The Milly contrast panel satin shift dress was four different colors, had a modest neckline and was nice and youthful without making her look like a toddler. It was the perfect thing to work for both of us. I was doing good deeds all over the place. Maybe Sue and Jeanie would be moving in sooner than I thought.

 

April Rhodes PoV

When I got the pretty little embossed invitation to KAMA’s drop party I couldn’t have been more excited. It gave me a reason to go and buy the adorable Herve Leger cap sleeve foil bandage dress I’d had my eye on for a couple of weeks. I thought things through and decided that that event was going to be the perfect place to find myself one last sugar daddy to keep me in the style that I had become accustomed. That being said, I needed to arrive with a date, but it had to be someone who wouldn’t interfere with me flirting my hot little ass off until I hooked a big fish. I did have a couple of choices, but ultimately I decided that it would be the perfect to get rid of an albatross around my neck. William Schuester. If he went with me maybe he could find some rich old broad to charm and give his boring as hell bed service to. He was fine the first couple of times I fucked him…but it was easy to tell that he had learned how to make his cray-cray, domineering and not in the good way, ex-wife happy and never tried any new tricks…ever. Even Magus was better in bed and he couldn’t get it up without a happy pill and a pump.

Shopping gave me a clearer picture of exactly what I needed to do to successfully snag me another rich old guy. The more I thought about it the more I realized, I liked rich old married men, they were kinky old sots who didn’t care if a girl had a snootful or two before she got into his bed. Yup, the drop party would be just what the doctor ordered. I checked the clock and was surprised that it Tuesday. I had some how missed Monday entirely. I gave Little Willie a call. “So I am holding in my hand my invitation to Sweet Little Cedes and her naughty boys record release party on the fifteenth. You want to go together?” I asked as soon as we exchanged pleasantries. I listened and heard what sounded like airport sounds in the background. “Are you finally taking your patootie to go see Peppermint Pattie?” I teased.

“No. Umm. It was on the Insider last night that Finn was awake. So I was going to go see him.” William explained. “Now what was that about Mercedes? They mentioned her, Puck and Sam in the story they did on Finn.”

I rolled my eyes. It was probably more correct to say that they had mentioned the barely known college football player in the story about the famous musical group, but Willie was an idiot when it came to those kids. “I said that I got an invitation to KAMA’s record drop party and wanted to know if you wanted to provide me with an escort.” I spoke slowly as if he were retarded…no comment.

“I’m not sure if I got one. I think I remember seeing something I assumed was a wedding invitation, but I didn’t know anyone getting married, so I figured it was some fun new way one of the credit card companies had for getting you to open the bill.” He chuckled.

“Well, the invite says I can bring a plus one…so you can me mine. There will be tons of industry big wigs there. It could be good for your career to find yourself a nice rich patroness.” I suggested.

“Uhh…sure. That sounds good.” He said and I heard a muffled announcement in the background. “I’ll talk to you when I get back they are calling my flight.”

“Sure Willie. Tell Finnie to hurry up and get back in fighting shape. Nobody can lift me as high.” I grinned. I’d sent the kid’s school some tuition money for the next school year. It had been all over ESPN that the head injury he’d had was probably too severe for him to risk playing even if he did come out of the coma with his motor functions and shit together. Of course, Will had been off every Tuesday for the entire time the poor kid had been comatose, but he couldn’t bother going when Finn wasn’t really present and accounted for. Jeez, I must have been drunk as fuck to think he was a good man. It was time for me to take my ass to rehab. Maybe I could spend a couple of days at a detox spa before the party, get myself back in fighting shape. That wasn’t a bad idea. I bet if I got somewhat clean before the party, Mercedes could introduce me to some of those industry people without being embarrassed by the crazy, old blonde chick. I immediately booked myself a night at the Mandarin Oriental for their twenty-four hour detox. Maybe if I did the detox and stayed mostly alcohol free until the party, I’d be rewarded by Will Schuester finding another rich tit to suckle at. 

 

Shannon Bieste PoV

I tried to always be honest with myself. Especially when I was being a coward. I knew, from the second I opened the invitation from Puckerman, Evans and Jones, that I wanted to go but I would not be able to. I would have no clue what to wear. I wouldn’t have a clue how to act. It wouldn’t be anything I could be comfortable going to, no matter how much I wanted to be there to support those boys. I was proud as hell of all my graduated Titans, but the ones that had been in the New Directions they held a special place in my heart…none more so that Noah Puckerman. I was trying to come up with some excuse that would actually work. As a football coach and phys ed teacher, I actually made pretty good money. I didn’t live in a hugely expensive condo and believe it or not, the judge awarded me alimony…still pretty surprised that Cooter actually pays it. I never really touch that money. It goes into a saving account. I get by well on my salary. I don’t need his money. So I couldn’t use the ‘can’t afford to go’ excuse. As I was sitting there wondering if I was woman enough to actually say ‘I don’t have anything to wear’ without vomiting into my mouth a little bit, when my email notification chimed on my phone.

Happy to have something to take my mind off the conundrum I was currently facing, I whipped that bad boy out and unlocked it. Pulling up my outlook email, I saw that I had a message from an address at ABC. I tried to figure out who I knew at ABC when the R. Mayzer clicked. It was Puckerman’s feisty, fiery, flirty grandmother. Knowing that I was a lot more comfortable opening the letter.

Dear Shannon,

I hope that you’ve remembered who I am and therefore opened the email…though if you’re reading this then you’ve already remembered or at the very least figured it out. I’m Ruth Mayzer, Noah Puckerman’s grandmother. I am writing because you have been a mentor and a coach to my grandson and his Sam but beyond that you are an adult that all three of them like, respect and care for. They have sent you an invitation to their first, big, all about them, music industry event because of what you mean to them. And if I know people, and I have made a life study of knowing people, then right now you are trying to figure out if there is any way you can not come without hurting them. It isn’t that you don’t want to celebrate their success with them, it is just that you aren’t sure that you can do so in a way that won’t, to your way of thinking, embarrass them. Now you are sitting there wondering how a woman who you’ve had a grand total of three conversations with be able to tell what you are thinking with such success and knowledge. The truth is that you are a lot like my Noah. You both feel things very strongly but have learned to bury those feels to make it more difficult for others to know when they have hurt you.

The parallels I seen between you and my beloved bubbela are why I want to help you attend the party. That and because I know that Noah, Sam and Mercedes will be very disappointed if you cannot attend. So I have made you an appointment with me to go and have our hair and nails and makeup done. Even more, below I have attached the links to three different complete looks. Clothes, shoes, accessories, the works. You decide which one you like the most and purchase it. Bring it with you when you come to New York. You don’t have to worry about getting a hotel you and your guest are welcome to use my one of my guest rooms, we can make it a nice little girl time getting ready for the party. It will be fun and I will be able to help someone who means so much to people who mean so much to me.

Thank you Shannon for being what my grandson needed when he needed you the most.

Sincerely,

One Proud & Happy Bubbie,

Ruth Mayzer

“Well, that was certainly not what I was expecting.” I said into the empty air of my office.

I opened the first PDF. She had cut and pasted pictures to the first page in what I knew Hummel called a ‘Look Book’ when he did it. That first one was a silver and black satin and silk jumpsuit that screamed ‘vintage’. I read the name banner over it. ‘ABS Vintage Inspired Jumpsuit’. It was pretty, the silver top had elbow length wide sleeves and Ruth had even given me the size I would need to order it if I decided that I liked it best. The shoes she had to go with it were black, suede and leather ankle boots with two and a half inch thick heels that I would be comfortable walking in. There was a picture of a wide, silver, laser cut leather belt that it said came in extended sizes so it would work even on an Amazonian warrior woman like me. In fact, it kind of looked like it was made for an amazon. Ruth Mayzer was as observant as Puck, unless he or one of the others had clued her in. I had quite a few piercings in my ears. I mean, I was no Cameryn Manheim, but I did have more than two holes in each ear. In her accessory list, she had included enough silver and cubic zirconium studs to cover the extra piercings and then finished me off with a pair of simple sterling silver drop earrings that would look great with the outfit, even I could tell that, but they weren’t fussy or frou-frou. The final picture was of a small little clutch purse with a long silver chain. The clutch was the only spot of color in the whole outfit. It was silver satin but it had dark red crystals covering the whole thing so that the silver barely peaked through.

I liked it, it looked like me. But I was curious to see what the other two looks looked like. So I clicked on the second PDF. This one was another jumpsuit. Sleeveless with a shallow V neckline in the front and higher in the back. The jumpsuit was black on black, but the top looked like it was metallic while the pants looked soft and buttery smooth. Again there was a wide leather belt, black this time with gold metal details on the front. The belt would buckle behind my back because the details weren’t anything that would separate. A little further down the sheet there was a red, waist length, embroidered knit jacket with sleeves that would stop at my elbows. Since this jumpsuit’s legs weren’t as full or as long and flowy, she didn’t give me ankle booties she gave me actual heels. They weren’t high, thankfully, only about two inches. They were open toe but not fully, and had slats for sides but a fully closed back. The black leather slats were all glittery and would tie in well with the metallic top. I noticed that she didn’t have any studs on this look, instead the earrings were cages of cz studded gold hoops that would ‘climb’ the shell of my ear from the lobe up to where my last piercing was anyway. I really liked those. The purse was the same as the other PDF, it matched the red jacket great and the look was edging out the other one a little just because I could almost hear Hummel chiding me about edging out of my fashion safety zone.

I was shocked as hell when I opened the final PDF. If the first had been the epitome of me, and the second nudged me out of my comfort zone, the last one shot-put me out of it. It was a dress. A DRESS! No, not just a dress, but a cocktail dress. It would stop right above my knees, hopefully…it had one shoulder bare and the other covered with an asymmetrical capelet thing, according to the details next to the picture. It was simple and not fussy. It was black and didn’t come with a belt nor did Ruth put one on the ‘look book’ for me. Like the dress the shoes were outside my usual taste too. They were real heels. High heels, with just a strip of ivory satin that would go over my foot right behind my toes and a big ass sparkly bow at the heel and the silvery studs that made the bow sparkly continued down the back of the shoe to the sole. While the dress was simple, still a dress, the accessories were where ‘fashion’ came in. Pictured there was a ‘gypsy’ coin bib statement necklace, a pair of simple, round, silver disk drop earrings and a few simple silver or cz studs. Even the purse was fussier, it was a teal blue…I think that was to go with the color of the bottom of the heels…leather clutch that had a little strap which I could wrap around my wrist, but it would be hard to keep track of.

I thought about them all. I wasn’t ready to pick, so I printed off the PDFs and decided to get a second opinion from Mark when we met for dinner that evening. It was strange I had gone from trying to figure out how to get out of going to planning how to go and what to wear and figuring out if Mark would be able to come with me. With a wicked grin, I shot Mark an email that included the three PDFs and asked him if he would like to go with me to New York to see the kids have their big night. Then I forwarded the three PDFs to Shelby, Danica, Rebekah, Gabby and Marisol Lopez. The subject was simple ‘Three Look Options for the kids’ big night’ then the message itself was just one word, all in caps. HELP!

With my call for assistance sent out, I logged into the account with my ten months of alimony payments. There was enough there to finance the trip, so I started making the arrangements. A part of me found it very rewarding to use Cooter’s money to fund a trip to go and see the kids almost directly responsible for me finding myself again after he tried to take all that I was and make me weak and spineless. Now, I had Mark who gave me strength and support and love. Sometimes I cursed the fact that had I waited just another year, I could have given myself to him and only him. It was to my regret that I had allowed Cooter Minkins to ever touch me. But I also knew that I wasn’t the same person then that Mark fell in love with, so I had to put away that regret and roll with the cards I’d been dealt. Because missing on the pain was definitely not worth missing out on the joy.

 

Stepsister’s Lament (Rodger & Hammerstein’s Cinderella)  
Will Schuester PoV

I had been very much sure that Rachel and Finn were going to be the stand out stars of the New Directions. Their voices were lovely together. They had chemistry that I could have sworn would stand the test of time. Shannon had seen them going back and forth with each other and said that the on again/off again, break up to make up relationship couldn’t last because it wasn’t healthy. She said that wanting each other was all well and good but it couldn’t make it without real, lasting trust and commonalities. But she just didn’t understand people like Rachel and Finn, and like myself. I had wanted Terry and been determined to have her so I had made sure that she and I got together. And we had lasted. We had been together for fifteen years and married for five. Sure we had taken a few breaks, like during our years at two different colleges, but we always made our ways back to each other.

When I got to Finn’s hospital room, he was sitting up in the bed talking with his stepfather. “Hey Mr. Schue.” He seemed happy to see me.

“Will.” Burt greeted stoically. There were times that I was almost positive that that man didn’t like me. But I was probably wrong. I had never done anything that would make him hate me.

“Good morning Burt. You must be really happy to have this guy back up and around.” I chatted happily before going over and shaking Finn’s hand making sure not to go to his casted arm.

Burt smiled over at Finn and I felt the usual pang of jealousy. I knew that Burt was Finn’s stepfather, but in my mind, Finn was my pseudo-son. I made sure that it didn’t show on my face and instead smiled happily. “Yup. Finn had us all really worried, but he’s back now and he’ll be getting out of here on Friday.”

“Well, that is great news.” I agreed. We were chatting when Finn mentioned that he was going to be in New York in a couple of weeks. “That’s great. Maybe we can get together for lunch and I can get you some tickets for a show.”

Finn shook his head. “I don’t know if there is going to be any time. I mean, we’ll be flying in Friday night, then Saturday will be spent with getting ready for the drop party…I do think that the original NDs are gonna stay until Tuesday or Wednesday since it is Spring Break. But we might not because Puck, Sam, and Cedes are packed full for the week doing promotional stuff. But that is the plan right now because they will be in New York until they have to go to LA on Thursday…but then they will be in Vegas on Friday for a special Howard Stern show interview.”

I nodded. “Well, I don’t have rehearsals on Tuesdays so if you want to meet for lunch or something, I’d love to spend some time catching up with you.”

We talked for a while longer but Burt and I both got kicked out when his mom returned and needed to help him with something that the nurses could have helped him with, but I suppose since she was a nurse, she could do it and save them some time and trouble. Burt took me down to the cafeteria. “So, how are things on the great white way?” Burt asked conversationally.

I told him how much loved the show and how I’d been pulled from the chorus to the one of the roles with lines…even if I did have to play a Klansperson who beat the main female lead, Felicia, while forcing the male lead, Huey, to watch… “But I’m also the understudy for the Huey part. However, this summer, Bryan Furkarht is going to be heading the new production over in London and I will be stepping into his shoes.” I decided against telling Burt about the stipulation that if I didn’t receive great reviews for opening weekend, I’d be unemployed. I was having some trouble creating believable chemistry with the play’s female lead, a black woman named Montego Butler. She was Tony nominated so if they had to replace one of us, it was a lot better on their box office to replace me.

“That’s nice. The kids were all really happy for you and Shelby has been great for the New Directions.” Burt smiled. “So are you looking forward to the drop party? As soon as the doctor said that he would be able to go, Finn and Lauren started texting trying to figure out what each of them are going to wear.”

“Yes,” I said grateful that I had spoken with April and knew what he was talking about. I did regret not opening the invitation but it hadn’t been from an address I recognized and therefore seemed ignorable. “I’m going with April Rhodes, but we’re simply going as friends. I think she doesn’t feel comfortable going by herself to something like that.”

Burt smirked at me, giving me a look that definitely said that he knew something that I didn’t. “It was real nice of the kids to invite all of us. Ms. Pillsbury came through yesterday to visit Finn and it was all they talked about. Then she was real nice about getting Carole out of here for a while by taking her to go shopping for something for each of them to wear. The Neiman Marcus here is better than anything you’re gonna find in Lima.”

“Oh yes, well Emma and I aren’t seeing each other anymore. The distance was just too much.” I lied.

He nodded. “I guess that would be hard on a couple.” We chatted pointlessly for a little longer before he calmly stated. “I don’t like you Schuester, you claimed to love those kids but you only ever saw one of my boys and the Berry girl. You never saw that my Kurt can sing circles round Rachel when it comes to those musicals and Cedes can do it in everything else. Now you are about to see three of the kids you over looked are doing better than you or Rachel…it is going to stick in your craw something awful. But if you do anything, anything at all at that drop party and I will get to you before Benton or Sander or George can. Now I’m sure that you’ll need to get back to New York either later tonight or early in the morning, so why don’t you go ahead and spend as much time with Finn as you can. I’m sure that he appreciates you coming out here.”

With that he turned and walked away. I wanted to argue. I wanted to tell him that I didn’t favor Finn and Rachel to the exclusion of all the rest of the kids. But there comes a point when having heard everyone tell you the same thing, all you can do is stop and think either twenty-five or thirty people are all wrong on the subject or two people are. It was with a heavy heart that I admitted that it was the two who were wrong and I was one of them. But as Dickens said through Ebenezer Scrooge, it was never too late. I was still alive, there was time to change. The drop party may have been happening on the ides of March and not on Christmas, but that was still a great time to start showing the kids that I really could care about them all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Decision was reached in the voting for who shall replace Finn in the clutches of death. Look for the answer in later chapters.
> 
> Pictures of the fashion discussed in the story is always available at the Illy&Anni Yahoo Group.


	15. Make It Happen (Mariah Carey), No Matter What (T.I.) & Glamourous (Fergie feat. Ludacris)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ****THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****
> 
> Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories:
> 
> This Chapter Dedicated to brightly 75 & LostInStereo, thank you for taking the time to review.   
> I appreciate all of you.
> 
> John Matuszak as Marc Fisher

Make It Happen (Mariah Carey)  
Mercedes PoV

Oh my God…I was smoking crack rock when I decided that we could handle having the drop party and the short promotional tour back to back and right after mid-terms. Granted, I had set the schedule before Finn’s accident and therefore before I realized that we’d be dealing with the most emotionally taxing, physically exhausting month of our lives right before we were to start the two weeks of collegiate and professional hell. Probably it wouldn’t have been quiet as bad if I hadn’t spent every weekend flying back and forth to Columbus, but what else could we do. Finn was Puck’s brother in all but blood. He was our friend and he was our ‘leader’. I wouldn’t change one crowded flight, one study session sitting on the floor of LaGuardia because it was more comfortable than the chairs, one afternoon we knew we should have been studying but spent singing to the kids with cancer a few floors down from Finn’s room when we needed a break from the beeps and silence. 

Looking back there were a million things that made it all worthwhile though. Being there for Lauren as much as we were for Kurt and Burt and Carole. Getting to know Vince, my brother’s doppleganger, even better. Seeing strangers in the airport react to the premiere of the video for ‘ColorBlind’. That was completely awesome and so worth the mobbing for autographs when someone realized that we were really us. Working with Anika and Christophe to take over the day to day running of our online presence. We had a dedicated webpage, twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts. They were all linked together, and there was even a contest up to win a visit from KAMA to play at the lucky winner’s prom. I’d forgotten that we agreed to do that. I was going to wear a prom dress for sure. Hell, we were only a little older than they were. We were slowly but surely taking over the running of our career. It had been great of Lyor to have his staff handle it for the first six months…that was above and beyond the call of duty. As I learned more and more of the business, I was overcome with gratefulness. Despite the crazy schedule the Thursday before we flew to see awake Finn, I sent Lyor a homemade six layer red velvet cake in gratitude and Deborah a same sized carrot cake.

When we got to Columbus the Friday evening after Finn woke up, he had already been released to return to his dorm room. So the three of us, Kurt and Blaine went to Morrison Hall. We ended up signing autographs for almost an hour before campus security broke things up. They helped us get up to Finn and Vince’s room and we chilled out there. “So wait, you mean that once you get through all the shit you have to do during your spring break you’ve gotta start interviewing for a manager and an agent?” Lauren laughed. “You guys cannot catch a break. You’re not going to get any rest until you die.”

“Shut up.” I tossed a pillow at her. “You know I’m just trying to find a place holder ‘til I can have you back as my manager Ms. Thing.” 

Lauren smiled over at me. “Give me a couple of years.”

The rest of the room chuckled. “So what does an entertainment manager do?” Vince asked quietly. “I mean, hell what does an agent even do?”

Noah smiled. “Agents run shit… they book us dates, they get us tours and stuff like that. Managers make shit happen. So they are gonna be the ones that make the tours come together. Lyor invited the ones he thinks we should interview to the drop party so they can vet us before we vet them. We also have to have a business manager, but they are almost always CPAs anyway so Artie’s mom is gonna keep doing it for us because, well, she’s a CPA in Lima, she doesn’t have a hell of a lot to do outside tax season.”

“Plus, we can trust her.” Sam pointed out. “At least a lot more that we’d be able to trust one of those shyster types from Hollywood or even New York.”

“True, true.” Vince agreed.

Finn nodded too. “Plus too, with Artie so much a part of what all you are doing, she would be crazy to do something that would mess you guys up. Not that she would, I just meant…”

“We know.” We all smiled. It was so Finn like to stumble into that verbal trap. “God damn, Finn…it is so good to see you and hear you say something borderline offensive and…sheesh don’t you ever scare us like that again.” Puck growled.

“Thanks for finding Simple for me.” Finn said quietly. They did a fist bump and it was weird, manly bonding, but they were good again.

“Yeah well, I’m the one who taught you about hiding him so your mom couldn’t find him after she was so proud of you for not carrying him around everywhere back in the day.” Puck grinned.

We talked some more and then Vince snuck us out of the dorm and we went to check into the same hotel we stayed in every weekend we came into town. While we did make love that night, I found that I just couldn’t sleep. There was still a lot on our plates and we were quickly running out of time. I was trying not to think about the fact that the next day, while we were having lunch and chilling with Finn, Lauren, Vince, Papa Burt and Carole…Bubbie Ruth was going to be picking out our clothes and everything. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her, I totally did, but it was hard for me to give up control. To get my mind off of the clothes shopping, I decided to work on one of my projects that were assigned instead of a mid-term exams.

I knew that I couldn’t work on the Juilliard projects…they would be too loud and Sam and Noah were not experiencing the insomnia that I was. I had three classes on that campus and each of them were projects, not tests. I had the job of preparing a brand new composition in the style I was assigned…which was the baroque’s gavotte style…big fun, for my composition class and practicum and revising a ‘flawed’ musical piece for my composer’s forum. Puck’s ear training class didn’t have any mid-term at all. And he was assigned the rhapsody style in our composition class. Sam’s guitar performance mid-term seemed to be the hardest project we had been assigned in our Juilliard classes he had to learn a composition and play it. It had to be classical and identifiable with our any other instrumentation. His style for the practicum and class was toccata. We’d started working on them, but none of us had completely finished any of them yet.

While I couldn’t work on them that night, I could and did turn my attention to my principles of economics project. The only non-sit down test, I had at Columbia. I had to turn in a five to seven page paper on one of the fundamental principles of economics. I chose the tradeoff principle, which basically meant that to get something we wanted we often had to give up something we liked. I needed three sources though only one of them could be completely digital…in the still of the night in that hotel room seemed to give me the inspiration to write that paper that I’d not been able to find before. It took me only two and a half hours to research and type out a rough draft. I was very proud of myself and that sense of completion lulled me to sleep.

The rest of the weekend flew by so quickly we barely wanted to go home. It was as if all of us were just a little scared that the second we left Finn would slip away or something. Thankfully that was just an unfounded, irrational fear. Monday after all our classes, we had a meeting with Deborah, Anika, Christophe and Bubbie to go over the party details and have my first look at the dress she had found for me to wear as I walked the red carpet. Deborah took the floor first. “Now before we get into the launch party details. Your CDs are here and ready for sale at the party.” She smiled and passed us a CD case.

They had decided on the cover art themselves and to be honest it wasn’t one of the pictures I remembered taking. It was one of the promo stills we’d taken at Brooklyn Bridge Park. We were in the black and white outfits; God Mercy looked beautiful in that black and white dress. We were standing looking over at the bridge with the big carousel behind us. The lights of the carousel had been manipulated so that they read ‘Necessity 4 Existence’. Mercedes was standing between Puck and me and we all looked happy and proud and deeply, deeply in love. I was struck by how much we looked like us and how much love came through the photograph. It was a complete and total candid shot not posed at all. My eyes kept fixating on Mercy’s face. If we could keep her looking that happy for the rest of our days then Puck and I could die satisfied men. “They are beautiful.” Bubbie breathed proudly. “The three of them look so deeply in love and so happy.”

“Lyor thought so too. He picked that himself.” Christophe told us happily. “Sorry if I seem like I was crowing, but I picked it out and I was the one fighting for it. Everyone else wanted the one of you three on the bridge where you two, Sam and Noah, were kneeling next to Mercedes’ hips.”

‘Oh that was a good shot.” Puck laughed.

Anika nodded. “It would have put paid to those jerks who feel that you and Sam are using your whiteness to subjugate Mercedes. Granted the controversy of having two white boys worshiping a thick black woman on a CD cover would not have been inconsequential.”

We all chuckled at the understatement. “There will be twenty-five hundred for sale that night. Any that don’t sell will be sold online.” Deborah explained.

Anika took the floor back over. “Alright, let’s talk drop party details. The theatre seats twenty-five hundred, you are expecting seven hundred VIPs and guests.”

“Wait, they are all coming?” Noah asked. “I mean, I invited a couple of people that I wasn’t even sure would get the invite. And a couple of people that I just wanted to rub their faces in the fact that I was doing a hell of a lot more than being a Lima Loser.”

Deborah laughed. “Well, get ready to have to avoid them during the mingling, because all but one of the people who received one of the bamboo paper, nice eco-friendly touch by the way, invites RSVPed, all the ones you invited to bring a plus one did so for themselves and a guest. That includes the initial hundred you gave to Lyor for the stars you wanted to invite and the seventy-five you gave him after you sent out the one hundred and seventy-five invites you sent to your family and friends. So as I was saying…you are expecting seven hundred VIPS and guests. Four hundred tickets were given to area radio stations to give away in contests and for some of their DJs and executives to attend. Another two hundred and fifty were offered for pre-purchase, first come, first serve…only two each…to the members of your fan club. Those tickets will also gain them entry into the VIP reception. The rest of the tickets will be sold at the door.”

“What is the price per ticket?” Sam asked curiously.

Christophe answered that one. “Hundred each for the over twenty-one set, they will get a florescent green arm band, and seventy-five a head for those who just get a stamp.”

We nodded. We didn’t actually know if that were a good price or not, but we figured they knew what they were doing. “Oh and umm…thank you guys so much for getting the whole babysitter thing together…but we need to add three more babies. My cousin Samantha and her husband and their best friend Carly are gonna do their web show from the red carpet and then you know, join the party.” Sam told them. Deborah got the triplets names and age then sent off a quick email to her secretary before she nodded and we knew it was handled.

Anika took over. “The schedule for the night is as follows. Red carpet is from seven to eight. VIP reception is from eight to nine, you three will be expected to mingle the whole time. Then you will need to go into the back before we open the doors for regular ticket holders. Your opening act, Max Schneider, will go on at nine forty-five. He has a thirty minute set. You three will go on at ten thirty. Your intermission is scheduled for eleven. Then you’ll go back on from eleven thirty to twelve-twelve fifteen. After that give us about an hour of post-concert mingling and you can head to The Place for your after party.”

I looked thoughtful, but Puck took the words right out of my mouth. “What is the schedule for set up, sound check and breakdown?”

Deborah checked her iPad. “Both set up and your sound check are scheduled for the night before on the fourteenth. Set up will take place while you three are still at Juilliard. You should arrange to have the band there at four and you all join them around five. Because of the nature of the venue, the sound check will all be run by their tech, but that’s the same as the Halloween concert. You should probably schedule yourselves and hour to two for that.”

Sam looked around. “Bubbie, is it too late to push back the big family dinner to eight thirty?”

She shook her head, “We have the room from six to eleven. The caterer is scheduled to start their set up at six fifteen. I’m sure that and extra thirty to forty-five minutes won’t hurt them.”

“Okay, I have one concern.” Christophe popped in. “You guys have contracted with your backup vocalists, dancers and musicians to pay them a hundred thousand a year each with your choreographer earning a hundred and fifty thousand. Now, that’s all well and good…your business manager and parents are all fine with that and for the length of your first contract only half of that comes out of your pockets. However, that is on top of their per diem, hotel and travel during your summer tour…I just figured somebody should point out that that is what stars usually pay their dancers and everyone at the Beyoncé or Katy Perry level. You guys technically could pay per event rather than going per year already.”

“Yeah, but I’d much rather pay them to be at our beck and call all year than to have to find people to come in and have to rehearse them time and time again as we go along. Constantly training new people and trying to make sure that they mesh well with all the crazy that is our lives. Ain’t nobody got time for that.” He joked. “Besides, this city is expensive as hell…how would we look not paying our people a living wage.”

I nodded. “Puck’s right, you can’t pay for the chemistry we’ve been able to gather with our band, singers and dancers. It’s worth it to know that they are on retainer. They will be available when we get ready to do all the appearances we have to do next week. They will be ready when we tour next summer. And they will be ready for us when we head back into the studio. With our schedule that is a necessity not a want.”

Christophe held up his hands before Sam could put in his two cents. “Hey, I just figured someone should let you know just in case. I didn’t realize that you had thought it all through.”

“We appreciate you looking out for us, Christophe.” Sam said with a lopsided grin. “But we are hoping not to have to break-in anybody new for a long time. So we just decided that we would pay them enough that they would feel both stupid and skuzzy if they dipped on us.”

We shared a big chuckle as we closed out the scheduling part of the meeting and turned our attention to Bubbie Ruth. “Alright, since the guys are easiest…Men’s fashion isn’t exactly the more changeable animal. Sam, I went simple, classic and clean lines for you. A Ralph Lauren black label, Anthony bird’s eye two-piece wool suit in charcoal gray with a shirt a very light shade of amethyst…no tie. Your shoes from last Christmas will be perfect. Puck, you’re a little less classic. For you I have a Gucci ‘Dylan sixties look cotton linen blend denim blue jacket and flair pants. It’s just a little bit rock-n-roll. Rather than a button down shirt, you’ll be in a Henley that is as close to the same shade of light amethyst as Sam’s shirt as I could find. In the next year or two, you guys might have to invest in a dedicated stylist. Preferably one who can do your alterations for you, because every time I turn around, your measurements are changing. Your schedules are already jam packed, and while the circumstances, hopefully will never be the same as the last month, but still it is only going to get more and more ridiculous as you get more and more popular.”

I made a note on my iPad. “Maybe Kurt can get us a recommendation from one of the advisors at FIT. I didn’t think we’d have to look into it until he had made his decision, but you’re probably right. Plus I never thought I would ever say this but after all the looking and shopping we did for the performance looks, I’m more than a little shopped out.”

“The world is officially ending. Mercedes Antoinette Jones just uttered the words ‘I’m shopped out’.” Sam breathed astonished.

“Shut it smartass.” I groaned, before ceding the floor back to Bubbie Ruth. 

“That’s okay…if we need to do an intervention, I know who to call.” She picked on Sam. “Now Mercedes, for you I went completely fashion forward. For your arrival you’ll be in a La Petite Robe di Chiara Boni off-the-shoulder stretch jersey dress in a shade of purple that the designer calls cyclamen. It has La Petite Robe innovative four-way stretch fabric, which marries the convenience of jersey with the luxe look of crepe. The dress itself is Italian made with an off-the-shoulder bateau neckline that is highlighted with a horizontal cutout slit across bodice. It has front darts, which will allow us to tailor it to fit you perfectly. The adorable mock wrap skirt has dimensional pleating at one side with a contour hem and back darts which will also make tailoring it easier. I’ll hem it up to bring it about two inches above your knees. I found the most darling pair of black Valentino couture patent leather bow platform pumps that will bump you up five inches…still won’t get you near as tall as your boys, but still.”

I licked my tongue out at her complete with raspberry. “That dress is awe-inspiringly gorgeous. Can you do the alterations, or do I need to try and find someone? Gramma Mae won’t be her until Friday, and that is way too late to wait.”

She smiled. “I’ll alter both for you. But I’m not finished.” Sam, Noah and I all looked at each other and mouthed ‘Both?’ but Bubbie really wasn’t finished. “Now with that neckline and your cleavage peeking through the cut out, you won’t need a necklace. Instead I found the perfect pair of statement earrings. This is from my rental company I use for work. So you don’t have an option to buy. I’m sorry…but if you love them that much, we can probably find them somewhere to purchase. These are the Armenta New World diamond and amethyst scroll earrings. They are totally tricked out. Sterling silver and white gold with white and champagne pave diamonds and marquise shaped dark purple amethysts. They are about four inches long and should be the perfect length to look just right with the dress.”

I nodded but couldn’t get past one thing. “You said both?”

Bubbie’s grin was wicked. “Oh yeah. That’s your arrival dress. Your after party dress is entirely different. It’s a Halston Heritage cocktail dress…strapless and short…amethyst so you won’t need different earrings, but you are gonna need amazing lingerie to keep your girls from making their own appearance when you dance.” She warned. “The dress is pleated and ruffled to give it visual interest. The bodice is steel grey with hints of purple in the color to tie them together. Now since you will start the evening in peep toe shoes, we’re going with classic pumps…Manolos…in amethyst suede. The shoes are the statement. The dress is just to highlight them.”

I did like both of the dresses she showed me. The first was more of what I was hoping to convey with my image. But the second was really cute too. “Why two?”

Bubbie Ruth gave me another wicked grin. “Despite KAMA’s popularity, you guys are still very new. Mercedes you have already made your love of fashion known. But there have still been several commentators who have something to say about your size and shape…your outside the mainstream look is something that seem to outrage the establishment. Rather than hide from that I want to see you embrace it. I want you to do what you and Dani do best. Show these idiots that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes and show thicker women that with the right tailoring fashion can be available to them too. Plus…I may not have been able to decide between the two of them. Fashion forward and fun and flirty…so finally I went with both.”

Puck groaned, “What about the budget?” he almost whined.

“I caught a great sale at Neiman Marcus. Decided in the store what I liked, with the help of one of my former assistants who now works over there as a personal shopper, then I used my iPad to order it at the online sale price and still walked out of the store with it in hand. Got a five hundred dress for under two.” She sounded both pleased and proud. “Neither of the pairs of shoes were on sale, but I saved by making you and Sam wear some you already own, since it won’t make a blip on the radar if you do, but the fashion reporters will jump all over Cede if she does. Plus, I rented the earrings, and I didn’t bother with getting her a purse, so remember that your pockets will be her purse. I stayed within your budget. Don’t worry.”

Puck did have the grace to blush. “Sorry Bubbie.” He blushed. “Did you find you something you liked?”

“Oh please, kid, I’ve had my dress since the Saks after Christmas sale. It is dramatic and gorgeous. Halston Heritage, sleeveless, black, steel gray and dove gray scarf print dress with a high-low hem that goes high on right thigh to gown length on the left. The back is awesome, cut out with a metal bar holding the two straps together. It is a beautiful dress. And I even found a pair of Gianvito Rossi’s on sale, black patent leather four strap sandals that will look striking with the soft, feminine lines of the dress. Fully decked out, completely designer and I spent less than a grand.”

Anika looked over at Bubbie and whispered reverently. “I want to be you when I’m your age.”

“Oh sweety, you can…just stick with me. I’ll teach you all the tricks.” She teased. “Cede, I’m going to take over Noah and Sam’s man cave so that I can get you, Brittany, Satan, and Jamie’s dresses pinned.”

“Oooh did Jamie find something good?” I asked quickly.

“Oh yeah. Pretty little red satin, one shoulder fit and flare cocktail dress, with an adorable bow detail on the shoulder. We found that at Neiman Marcus, but had to hit Macy’s for shoes…didn’t want to break her bank.” Ruth smiled. She did love dressing us all. I think moving here the way we did had just given her more Barbie dolls to play with.

Deborah and the gang let us go soon thereafter when they realized that Bubbie was going home with us to get the dressed pinned for alterations. Since she had actually driven, she had all the dresses with her, so she’d gotten a zip car for the day; we rode back to our house with her. She really did have everything she needed with her to pin and nip and tuck the dresses for us girls and the suits for the guys. The rest of the night, hell the rest of the week flew by in a haze of studying, projects, alterations and practices with the band and the dancers. It was exhilarating. It was exhausting. I sometimes wondered if I was insane for loving it all so much.

No Matter What (T.I.)  
Sam PoV

The twelve days between the meeting outlining everything that had been finalized for the Necessity for Existence drop party and the party itself was completely full. I mean packed. We had classes until five or six every evening. We grabbed dinner and met up with our band and background dancers and practiced until ten. Somehow in all of that we got our projects finished for our all of our classes and we managed to pull good grades on our tests out of our collective asses. I ended up with a ninety-one on my comparative ethnic studies class mid-term…I barely remembered taking the test, I was that deep inside my head. My exam for Latin was hilarious. My professor, Mrs. Shively, had me translate the first verse of ‘The Fighter’ into Latin. All in all I was glad to see the back of those.

After school it was band practice. It had taken us five weeks of week night auditions to find the perfect combination of people and instrumentation. We needed a bassist, a keyboardist/pianist, a drummer and Mercedes threw out the thought of having a turntablist…a DJ who could help us when we wanted to play or speed things up or just vary our sound just because. In true Mercedes fashion we were hella organized. Mondays we auditioned bassists. Tuesdays were dedicated to finding the right pianist/keyboardist. Wednesdays we were looking for drummers and Thursdays were for DJs. We had an hour set aside each day for either background singers or dancers too. But Brittany was working with the choreographer that the KAMA Warner team had found for us, Rainbow, handling the background dancer auditions, and Santana and Mercedes were the ones mainly doing the singers auditions. Thankfully Puck and I could play rhythm and lead guitar interchangeably and Artie was cool with coming on stage for the few songs that we couldn’t play during.

Week one went by without us filling a single vacancy. On Wednesday of week two we found our two male background vocalists. Damien Forteneau and Adam Kress were from the same hometown in Kentucky. They were half-brothers who shared the same mom, a black woman. Adam’s father was also black but Damien’s dad was white. They had moved to New York together and lived in a tiny apartment in Hell’s Kitchen waiting tables while they auditioned to become backup singers. Neither of them wanted the spotlight…but they loved to sing. Together their voices were great, with Santana’s they were gorgeous…but win you added in Mercedes, their voices were magic. Rainbow and Britts got a long like a house on fire and they had their team all together by the end of the second week. Monday of the third week we found our final vocalist, Xena Garrison looked like her name implied. She was tall and thick, shapely and comely. She and Santana shared the same eye and hair color though Xena was so pale I’d have thought she was a red head. The five of them Mercy, Tana, Damien, Adam and Xena sang Mahalia Jackson’s ‘Take My Hand’ together and had more than half the room of auditioning bassists in tears. Our dancers and singers were set…our band however wasn’t forming as quickly.

Later that same week, we’d thought we had found a perfect guy to act as out keyboardist, he played piano, he played guitar, he played steel guitar and he played bass…he seemed perfect…until he realized that we were kind of big on the whole diversity thing. He didn’t have a problem with Mercedes or Puck or the three of us being together. But when we brought him in to play with the bassists we were auditioning during week four, Santana was there to help us weed people out…Dude seemed to truly believe that all Hispanic people were Mexicans and the dude hated Mexicans. It took Mercy, Puck, Brittany, Blaine and me to keep Santana contained long enough for him to get the hell out of Dodge. The next person who walked in heard Santana’s Spanglish rant and started to laugh her ass off. Her name was Erica Chance, she was born and raised Puerto Rican. But where Santana was petite and light skinned Erica was darker of skin, taller and fuller of figure. She was also the best bass player we’d heard in any of our lives. I mean she was damn near as good as Tom Harrison.

Thankfully we hadn’t canceled the pianists’ auditions because we were desperate. We were despairing when we hit eight thirty that Tuesday night and hadn’t found anyone who could make the piano and keyboard both sing with Erica’s bass and me and Puck’s guitars. Then this tall, at least six-six, skinny guy about our age came running in. he was panting as he introduced himself and asked if he was too late to audition. He sat at the piano and played Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto Number Three. Our jaws hit the floor. If Erica was as good as Tom Harrison, then Justin Alexander was every bit as good as Herbie Hancock or Alicia Keys. Then he turned to the keyboard and launched into Heidi Newfield’s ‘Johnny and June’. Puck and I grabbed our guitars, Erica grabbed her bass and we just jammed for an hour. There wasn’t anything that we put down that those two couldn’t pick up. The very next night found us our drummer. Puck was determined that we have a black guy for a drummer. “Black people have the best rhythm, Sam…it’s like a fact.”

I tried pointing out Travis Barker or Dave Grohl or Chad Smith. But Dave Briggs proved Puck right. We’d had to have auditioned twenty five drummers before Dave, but he just…he blew us away. It was as if Tommy Lee and Questlove had had a love child just to give us the perfect drummer. Dave could do rock beats, funk, hip-hop, anything. And when the five of us played together it was awesome. He brought us our turntablist. Cassidy Carter was a bright skinned, biracial woman from Atlanta with an accent that made mine seem mild and a digital library that made Artie drool. It had taken us five weeks, but we were complete. The Monday after we were fully assembled, we met in ‘our’ conference room at Warner to lay out the terms of their contract.

“Okay the terms of your contract are probably a lot simpler than you’d think. You will be considered employees of our ‘company’ Amor Verissima, which is intern a subsidiary of our parents’ corporation Amicitiae Amore. This allows us to offer you things that most other groups cannot offer.” Mercedes told them once everyone was settled. We had the four back ground singers, four additional musicians, five backup dancers, two guys Simeon Drakkar and Jackson Pressley plus Brittany and two other women, Bianca Gorans and Elena Ramirez in addition to our choreographer Rainbow, whose real name not one of us could pronounce, except Brittany. She had been one of Gwen Stefani’s dancers during the ‘Hollaback Girl’ time period. We also had our tour videographer Artie.

“We’ll start with salaries. Though the breakdown of how you are paid is slightly different based on your job descriptions, you will each be paid on the first and the fifteenth of every month. Your salary is a hundred thousand dollars per year before taxes, with the exception of Rainbow. Hers is significantly higher because she has a lot more experience in her job than the rest of us do in ours. We offer a full benefits package, your health insurance will be through Kaiser Permanente.” Artie passed around the fee schedule for the insurance package. “You can also choose to opt in to AFLAC for short and long term disability and Liberty National for our accidental death policy. We offer vision and dental plans through Guardian insurance company. Because there are so many employees of the umbrella corporation, your rates are significantly lower than they would be if it were just the eighteen of us.”

“I didn’t think I’d ever have health insurance.” Damien said quietly to Adam. They fist bumped very happy with that turn of events.

“We also offer 401K and IRA savings plans and an FSA. Depending on our personal income, we will either do ten percent or fifteen percent cost of living and merit raises every year.” Another packet of papers was sent around. Everyone signed the base employment contracts and completed the W-2s. “Now, here it the deal. When we don’t have practices or performances scheduled, when we aren’t on tour, if you get offered a gig you want to take, feel free. We only ask that you keep yourselves available to us when we need you.”

“So wait you’re gonna pay us more than most of our parents make…you’re giving us like all the insurance…and we can still take side gigs as long as they don’t interfere with KAMA’s practice, recording or performance schedule.” Bianca asked shocked.

“Pretty much. I mean, we’re going to finish our degrees. So for the next three years, we’ll be booked solid during our breaks, and touring all summer, but during the semesters, day to day, when we aren’t recording, if you want to make that money, as long as you put us first, we’re cool.” Puck said honestly.

They all looked around the room and Erica stood up and said with a wicked grin, “I think I can officially speak for the rest of us when I say that you’ve got yourselves a bassist until the day I can’t play anymore.” 

The rest of the crew happily agreed and we got to work getting the benefits paperwork all filled out and scanned in to be sent to Mrs. Gwen. “Alright, last thing. When we have to travel, we’ll be traveling together. Same flights…though if we’re paying then we’ll fly first class and you guys are gonna be stuck in business. Hotels will be the same thing…we’ll be in a nice suite, but you guys will be in single rooms unless you have to double up. If you have a problem with that, let us know now.” I pointed out. Everyone was cool with it, so we did that paperwork and again scanned it in for Mrs. Gwen.

Mercedes took the floor again. “Now…our business manager is going to rent us three seven person RVs for the summer tour, but we’re going to look into having some custom made by the summer after our sophomore year. Okay, that one is probably not something you needed to know, but I find it awesomely cool and just had to say it aloud.” That earned her a chuckle. “Anyway, what you do need to know is that I idolized artists like Aretha Franklin and Patti LaBelle…artist for whom their band and singers and dancers were family. They ate together, they played together, and they knew each other’s families. When one suffered they all supported. I’m hoping that we can become like that. That is why it took us so long to find the right people, because we needed not only the best musicians and vocalists and dancers, but people who could become friends and grow into family. But even better, because there won’t be any judgement here. Sam, Puck and I get enough of that from the press. We don’t care who you love…be gay, be straight, be bi, be none of the above…we will support you. Santana, Artie and Brittany are also together. So as long as you don’t condemn us for who we love, we won’t condemn you for it either.”

From there it was just a matter of teaching everyone the right music and lyrics and Rainbow and Britts teaching us all the right moves. We practiced and we worked together to plan the performances for the drop party and get everything ready for it. We worked our asses off and time flew by. Suddenly it was time for the Friday night sound check. It didn’t go perfectly, but it was definitely a learning experience. While our set up crew and band were there on time, the venue’s sound guy wasn’t. Earlier in the week, Rainbow had given us the great advice of us drawing up a stage plan and emailing it to the sound guy in addition to the set up crew so that the floor and aerial mics could be placed appropriately. So we’d done that, I mean, it wasn’t perfect because there was quite a bit of movement in our stage show, but it showed where certain stationary things would be, like Dave’s drum kit and the backup singers crescent.

One of the first things we’d done when we got paid was to upgrade our amps to a wireless system for each of us and we did the same thing for Erica as soon as she signed on the dotted line. Then we had to get the keyboard compatible one for Justin. According to our contract and theirs, Warner was responsible for fifteen percent of the gear costs, but rather than going through them and therefore possibly having to listen to their opinions on what we got, we went with the absolute best we could get and did the reimbursement forms Deborah gave us to get our money back that way. Usually we only used them for wardrobe things, but the form we had was still apropos. Off to one side of the stage, Artie was in the process of pricing storage cases for our equipment that would make it easier to transport when we were on tour on his iPad. He seemed to get a huge kick out of the fact that we were doing so well financially but I couldn’t make myself pay for anything until I was pretty damn sure that there wasn’t any place I could get it cheaper. Adam, Damien, Santana and Xena were having what seemed to be a low note verses high not competition, while Rainbow had Brittany and the rest of the dancers going through an extended warmup. When Mercy, Noah and I got there, everything had been perfectly set up. Dave was tweaking the arrangement of his kit, Puck and my guitar stands were waiting to be filled with the guitars we carried with us. Cassidy was fiddling with her turntables. Erica was strumming away on her bass with a distracted air, and Justin was arranging his keyboards.

The venue event planner came running up apologizing profusely. “Gerald is running behind. He was here earlier but got a call from his kids’ school that no one had picked them up. So he had to run back to the Bronx and it is taking him longer to get back here than he thought.”

Santana groaned and flung herself back on the stage. I hadn’t heard a girl sound that pissed off and exasperated since the last time I saw my cousin Sam. Artie rolled into action just like Freddie would have for Samantha. “What and where is your setup and is the tower chair accessible?” I kind of think the guy wanted to disagree, but Artie was having none of it. “Look guy, my friends and I have some place to be after this. But we cannot leave without, at the very least, a rudimentary sound check. I am a film studies student who is minoring in production. I’m a former president of an AV club. So check it, you’re gonna take me up to the sound booth, you can stay and watch, but since you clearly can’t do this shit yourself I’ll get shit started. Hopefully your guy will be here soon and can take over, but if not, and you stand between me and getting this show on the damn road, this will be the first and last event your ass will ever book for KAMA, Warner Brothers Records or any of their artists. I can guaran-damn-tee that shit straight up.”

Suffice it to say he damn near picked Artie up and ran him to the booth. He’d later tell us how great the tech was but all that mattered to us was that by the time Gerald showed up after we’d been singing and getting the channels and volumes all determined and everything, all he had to do was clean everything up and save the final settings so that when Max did his sound check the next afternoon. We raced home and showered and got to the St. Nicholas Community Center about fifteen minutes late, but it was fine. The parents had started without us so we were able to grab out food without too much hassle. The night was spent catching up with pretty much everyone we’d ever known.

Well not everyone. It was mainly the old New Directions, the new New Directions, all our immediate families and our extended family too. Well except for me, I didn’t bother inviting any of my Evans family members. They seemed like racist assholes. Did not need that shit in our lives. We’d hired the same caterer who was doing our drop party, Spoonbread, and they were providing up with a great buffet featuring three entrees and a whole bunch of appetizers. I was so hungry by the time we got there, my stomach was talking to my backbone. I ate a little bit of everything. The entrees were rosemary baby lamb chops, cornbread stuffed chicken leg with rosemary gravy and paella. They were all awesome. After dinner there was talking and laughing and dancing until around midnight, when energy levels started to flag and we let everyone head to their hotels or wherever they were set to stay. Our house was packed with the old New Directions. Sugar’s dad and Coach Sylvester, I did not see that one coming, as well as all the new New Directions and their parental plus ones, Kevon, Patrice, Devon And Tonya were at Mr. Motta’s hotel near Central Park. My parents, Mercy’s parents, Coach Bieste and her boyfriend Marc, MeMaw and Grandma Mae were staying in Bubbie’s guest rooms. The Pucker-Altmans were all at Saul and Mills new house as were her friends from college. The rest of the crews’ parents and our cousins and aunts and uncles were in various hotel rooms around the city.

Mercedes, Noah and I took a long, hot, sexy, steamy bath together then we practiced our special massages on each other and made love until we just couldn’t cum any more. The next morning started hella early. Probably we should have had a hard time getting out of bed, but we were so hyped up on nervous and excited energy, we were up the second the alarm rang. We had enough time to shower and throw on some clothes before we needed to be down stairs to let Ricki and the rest of the hair and makeup crew in. They were setting up in the dance studio on BritArTana’s side of the duplex. Kurt was already over there getting everything in place for them. We let them get to work and Puck and I went upstairs and did a full workout. Mercedes gathered up the girls and they all went to the same spa the three of us had gone to before the SongBird Premiere. Puck and I were due to join them after we took all of the girls’ and our performance apparel to the venue. There was so much going on, it seemed like I blinked and it was time to head to Faina. I blinked again, probably to clear the ears from my eyes after that damn earlobe waxing, and Puck was talking Mercy and us into having a quickie in the shower. Another blink and we were getting dressed, styled and into the massive line of limos. I made sure that I paid attention after that. Our first album drop party was destined to be one hell of a night and I didn’t want to miss a thing.

Glamourous (Fergie feat. Ludacris)  
Santana PoV

I have got to get my shit straight so I can gets my record deal. I wants to live that life for-eva. Seriously. The time leading up to the Saturday of the drop party was hard and tiring and jam packed with activity from the time we woke up until we fell into bed exhausted and begging for more hours in the damn day. But Saturday, it was like everything slowed down and it was all chill. We had to get up a little early and help Hummer get shit ready for Rickie and the makeup and hair crew that we haired to help us get all fly. It was a time honored tradition for women to get together and get ready for major events in their lives and we were no exception. However, because there were like a hundred and fifty of us ranging from their early seventies to mid-teens, we weren’t all going to get in at the same place or even want to be at the same place. So it broke down like this; Bubbie took both Coaches, the grandmothers, great-aunts, basically everyone who had grandchildren or who she was responsible for getting all glammed and they went to Elizabeth Arden. Mills made the arrangement for the fifty and under set. The Moms, Shelby, Ms. Pillsbury and Mills and her college friends all went to Bliss 57 in SoHo. Mercedes handled the arrangements for those of us who were under twenty five or so. We still couldn’t handle everyone, so we decided that we’d take three of the current New Directions, but other than that it would just be us old hats, ROUS’s sisters in laws, the Southern Belle and the Cali-Bitch Queen. We only took the three high schoolers because well Tessa was family, so she had to look good, Marley was dating Jake, so she had to look good on his arm, because she could not show up as the date of Puck’s little brother looking a hot shitty mess, and we took Unique because she was hella funny and amused the hell out of me every time she started fan girling around her spiritual mummy and daddy. Anyway, we all ended up at Faina European Day Spa. The rest of the girls were free to make their own appointments or whatever, but they were free as long as they were back at the Chamber and ready to go when the cars showed up to get them at six.

Those who were spaing with Bubbie were getting ready at the ABC studios in Ruth’s big ass loft type keeper of the fashion Mecca. Mills had devoted her finished, but not yet furnished basement to the cause and the dozen or so of us were getting all dolled up in our dance studio. The men, other than Hummer, Sam and Puck, were all being left to get themselves together like the manly men they were. I had heard something about laser tag from Artie so I was sure that they would be occupied until they needed to get dressed. We Faina-goers were due at the mid-town spa by nine thirty…however there was a small problem in that no one felt like making breakfast. So we headed out the door a little early, all freshly showered and in comfortably stylish clothes. Einstein Bros. was a god send…all our stomach were happy with the delightfulness of real bagels and schmear.

We were each registered for the same package, The Ultimate Relaxation package for all twelve of us girls and Hummer. Our package was no joke. We were treated to four and a half hours of pampering. The day started with a Dead Sea Mud Detoxifying Body Wrap, which they followed with our choice of a sea mineral body scrub or peppermint body sugar scrub. Once our skin was completely confused whether it loved us or hated us, we received a fifty minute Body Massage. Satisfied that our bodies were puddles of happy goo the aestheticians turned their attention to our hair. Weave or home grown, all of our hair from Wheezy and Nique’s weaves to Tonya’s locs from Patrice’s curls to Britts and Que’s stick straight lengths were slathered with Aveda dry remedy moisturizing treatment masque and wrapped in hot, moist towels while they went to work on our faces. A face enzyme peeling then an aromatherapy facial after which they finished off with a seaweed mud-paraffin facial masque with vitamin c-serum. Once they were happy with our faces, they rinsed out our hair, sprayed it with the appropriate leave in conditioner for our hair type and wrapped it in fresh, moist, hot towels and dove in on the hands and feet. We had this thing called a lactol manicure, where they soaked our hands in an oil infused cream stuff before doing the manicure. My hands felt soft as a baby’s ass when they started on my nails. Once Felicity, my aesthetician, was done with my simple American manicure, she put some stuff over my eyes, put a warm sleep mask with gel inside it over them and stuck my feet into a lavender and vanilla oil whirlpool. After a delicious foot Massage, she gave me a perfect pedicure and the best part of all was that the whole time they had been plying us with sparkling cider, fruits and chocolate.

Sam and Puck arrived later when we were about half way done. They were just getting the two hour long Body Recharger men’s package. That package was comprised of a thirty minute aromatherapy body massage, followed by a deep pore cleansing, a hydrating, revitalizing face mask, grooming and facial hair removal, facial massage and finished off with a pure lavender aromatherapy paraffin hand & foot treatment. The Spa staff had timed everything perfectly we were all done around the same time. It felt weird going to lunch with my hair and face not yet done, but we were under orders not to put any products near the blank slates the aestheticians were sending back to our hair and makeup people waiting on us at home.

But on the way home Sam and Puck had gotten together with Artie and Blaine and some of the other guys, like Seth and Jake and arranged for us to have lunch at a cool little French bistro called Café Luxemburg. It had been in the same location for over thirty years and after one lunch there, it was easy to see why. The food was awesome and the service was without compare. They seemed to know that we were on a super strict schedule and they reacted accordingly. We were home by three. With four guest bathrooms between the two sides of the duplex and Jamie and Summer having headed down to number eight to get cleaned up, it took us a lot less time than one would have thought to get showered, moisturized, perfumed and in place in the temporary salon. I didn’t have a whole lot of options when it came to lingerie. My dress just wasn’t built for it. The plunging neckline would show a bra in the front and while the back was certainly high enough to hide the fastening strap, the shoulders were cut so that you’d see the band anytime I lifted my arms, so definitely not a lingerie dress. I just pulled on a pair of lacy blue boy shorts and slipped on a robe to go get beautified with my girls.

The ‘salon’ was jammin’. Rickie had figured out the system and plugged in a great ‘getting ready to party’ playlist. Our hair was clean and was so soft and shiny that it pretty well glowed, so all the hair stylists had to do was style it. They never duplicated. We each had our own style. They even made sure that Brittany’s do was something that would be pretty easy to transition for the performances. Cedes and I didn’t have that problem. I went with a nice simple head of loose waving curls. When I moved to the makeup chair, one of three, I went with a darker, smokey eye, pale face and deep wine lips. Tina helped my get my dressed taped down. With a neckline that deep and wide, fashion tape was a must. I liked her dress too. It was one of the ones she had gotten at the BCBG outlet store over the summer. The damn think made her look like an Asian fairy or something. It was a floaty A-line dress with an asymmetrical, mini skirt high in the front ankle length in the back, hemline. The halter neckline was high in both front and back and the dress was sleeveless. It was a pale coral pink that made Tina’s skin glow, though that could have been the spa day, and it was finished off with a front ruffle detail on both sides of her body. Rickie ‘s partner, Aisha, had done a damn good job on her hair and the fishbone side braid and fresh, light makeup turned AWA into an ethereal goddess. Though the ultra-high gold sandals lent her an air of naughtiness to. As I looked at the similar shoulder cut of our dresses, a sudden thought crossed my mind.

“What do you even wear under that?” I asked. Girl-Chang had boob a full cup bigger than mine and hers were real, no way was she free-boobing.

She rolled her eyes. “I’m in a seventy-five dollar, so it better stay all the way up and somewhat comfortable all night strapless bra with matching tenga panties.” she answered on a huff. I could understand that though. Seventy-five bucks was a hell of a lot for one article of clothing when you were a college student without a job.

“Well, I’m sure the girls and Boy-Chang appreciate it.” I shot back. “Keep ‘em from sagging any earlier that they have to.” I taunted.

Looking around I noticed that Que was back in the hair chair getting all the rollers removed from her short bob. The red-headed step child was completely ready and sitting in one of the folding chairs that were along the edge of the room near the door. Tessa’s hair had been straightened into a sleek bob that was longer than I expected. Whoever had done it had added some edgy black and white streaks that gave her a harder look. Her makeup was light and fresh though and when you added in her black and white, floral, silk, halter neck, cocktail dress, she managed to look trendy and classy at the same time. That shit was hard to do successfully. But she managed it. I wish she had gotten different shoes. The black sandals she was wearing should have had another inch of height to them and thinner straps, but she wasn’t as comfortable in trendy shoes as she could have been. I’d need to put a bug in Cedes’ mom’s ear. Tessa still needed quite a bite of girlification when it came to fashion.

Marley was all done up too. Her emerald green and black A-line dress was cute. And not pretty kind of cute, but young kind of cute. So I stopped and reminded myself that she was young and that the little girl was on a budget like the leather leggings Erica and Cassidy were wearing that night for the performances, tight. So the lace covered, cap-sleeve cocktail dress wasn’t so bad. The shoes were tots adorbs though. Two thin straps, one over the vamp, one around the ankle…high heel and full coverage of Marley’s heels. Not bad at all. They had given her one of those ‘doesn’t look like she is wearing anything at all’ makeup jobs, with a barely there shade of pink gloss on the lips. Her long, brown hair had been volumized and pulled into a curly, messy side chignon. Jake was going to want to mess her up in the naughty way. 

I was a little shocked when Mercedes came running into the room after several of the first limo chicks were already completely dressed. She rushed in wearing a black strapless, underwired, shaper slip and carrying her heels and the box containing her earrings. Her hair had been twisted up and was held in place by a big ass clip. She was glowing like the sun though so it was easy to tell what had held her up. “Somebody got the good good in the shower.” I teased mercilessly.

Mercedes Jones looked me dead in my eye. “Don’t let the jealousy eat you alive. I know you wanna be like me Satan. Don’t worry, you’ll get here someday.” She teased back. probably I would have thrown her some shit back at her, but Beyoncé’s ‘Freak’um Dress’ came on and Mercedes Jones left the building. “That’s my shit.” She squealed.

Cedes and Unique knew every single move to that video. Maybe I knew a lot of them too. With all the chicks in the room it was damn easy to recreate that shit. Then we got back down to business. Rickie and his, he wasn’t wearing heels that day, peeps were awesome and they had their shit tight. We’d gotten there around three fifteen and they still had all of us hair did, make-up did, dresses, jumpsuits, or whatever on and perfectly draped and out the door by like five minutes after six. The guys all looked great, Kurt had been great about making sure that they were all showered and coifed and ready on time. But they had definitely been waiting on us for a while. Kurt ran the car loading like a boss. We were out the door and in our assigned cars heading to Midtown Manhattan quick and easy.

Puck and Lady Lips had taken made sure that all of the performance gear was taken to the green room we’d be using as a dressing room. That meant that the ride over to the auditorium was fairly quick, and completely comfortable. When the big, and damn he was sexy dude in a black suit with a black shirt and tie opened the limo door and helped me step onto the red carpet, I knew for sure that it was just the beginning of something amazing and that confidence carried me through the whole night. I knew everyone who had been invited to the VIP reception. There were some really famous people who were about to learn the name Santana Lopez…and they would never forget it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone who is interested in applying to Beta the Learning French Series going forward, please PM me. I need one to two new betas. Please & thank you.


	16. Brick House, Get This Party Started & Sometimes Dreams Come True

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories:  
> This Chapter Dedicated to voraciousfanficappetite & all the different GUESTs, some of my long term Learning French Series reviewers.  
> I appreciate all of you.
> 
> CASTING CALL (FACE CLAIMS)  
> Syesha Raquel Mercado as Erica Chance  
> Dave Briggs as Dave Briggs  
> Desiree Casado as Cassidy Carter  
> Jared Padalecki as Justin Alexander  
> Julie Strain as Xena Garrison  
> Brandon T. Jackson as Adam Kress  
> Jordan Fisher as Damien Forteneau  
> Curtis Holland as Simeon Drakkar  
> Jasmine Mason as Bianca Gorans  
> Alan Bersten as Jackson Pressley  
> Alexis Juliano as Elena Ramirez  
> Rino Nakasone Razalan as Rainbow
> 
> View Fashions & Face Claims at the Illy & Anni Yahoo Group  
> https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/IllyandAnni/info

Brick House (The Commodores)  
Becky's PoV

My parents were so oppressive. I know that I was born with Down Syndrome, but I don't know why me having DS should mean that I couldn't go to New York with Coach Sue and go to the drop party. This was the coolest thing to every happen to anyone from Lima since the town's founding and I was stuck watching it streaming live on etonline. I opened my phone and pulled up the fashion app Kurt had helped me download when he was still a Cheerio. I could snap a picture of something I liked and it would tell me what it was and where I could buy it. I was determined to know how much everyone spent on their clothes for the night. It was especially important for the currently McKinley students. That kind of info was worth its weight in gold.

"This is the most star studded drop party for a debut album the industry has ever seen. And Entertainment Tonight is here to bring it all to you." Nancy O'Dell's cheery voice rang through the studio. "Brooke Anderson is live from New York. Brook, who has arrived already?"

Brooke Anderson smiled happily at her cameraman. "So far the better question is who hasn't?" she threw to a montage of shots taken before ET came on the air. Wiz Khalifa and Amber Rose posing all booed up, she was barely wearing a chainmail dress and him in jeans and a 420 tee shirt. Big Kenny in his trademark steam punk looking top hat and his wife Christiev Carruthers looking lovely in a little black dress that hit her mid-thigh and a pair of red pumps.

Probably both Big & Rich had been invited, but Rich wasn't willing to go to an event that was for a non-country artist…especially one that the conservative establishment didn't like. I thought uncharitably. I hadn't liked Rich since ‘Burning Detroit Down'. Technically I had a learning disability and even I knew that Obama had managed to save the auto industry. I also knew that the problem caused by all the manufacturing jobs being sent overseas had begun long before the man of color took office.

I perked up at the next shot to come on my laptop screen. Will, Jada, Willow and Jaden were pictured, Will and Jada looking like the fashion icons they were and Willow and Jaden not quite the HSMs they would soon become. Cher Lloyd looking cute and fresh despite the temperate March night wearing a black leather fit and flare cocktail dress. Jason Derulo and Jordan Sparks, both of them in red and black, were followed by Mike Shinoda and his wife of ten years Anna. Leela James and Lyfe Jennings were shown greeting Jill Scott and Anthony Hamilton like the four of them were old friends. Hugh Laurie and his wife Jo Green made a rare red carpet appearance.

I understood why Jones would have invited Dr. House. He had spoken out positively about the beauty of KAMA's music and the purity of Mercedes vocals in particular. But I was pretty sure that Pharell's popularity had seen Lyor Cohen send him an invite. It was probably also true that the head of Warner records was also hopeful that upon meeting Mercedes, Sam and Puck, the famous super-producer would desire to work with them. They wouldn't have felt like there was any choice in the matter for it. Brian McKnight was there too. He had mostly been invited because Sam's parents both loved him. I remember Coach Sue saying that the year before. Prince had been invited for a similar reason. Every one of the adults in anyone our ages lives were huge Prince fans; plus too, in a very rare interview he had called the love he saw in KAMA's engagement video ‘beautiful'. Not to mention…I mean, it was PRINCE. He'd turned his name into a symbol and still sold millions.

"The list of stars in attendance tonight is far too many to name. We've seen Barbara Streisand and hubby James Brolin, TI and Tiny, all three members of Paramore, Usher, Ginuwine, Missy Elliot and Timbaland, as well as Chilli, Ciara and Future. But we've also seen several members of the KAMA camp, including Finn Hudson and his girlfriend, Lauren Zizes. Finn was just released from the hospital last week after that almost tragic car accident in January. Lauren is headed to the NCAA National Wrestling Championship as one of the only women competing at the heavyweight level from a school the size of Ohio State. The buzz says that if she can win the championship, and I will remind our viewers that she competes in the Male competitions, at least two of her four years in school she will be a shoo-in for the women's wrestling team at the 2016 Olympics." Finn looked great in a nice black suit. He had kept it simple black suit, black tie, powder white shirt and black and white leather Alexander McQueen lace up sneakers.

I was willing to bet that those were Kurt's contribution to the look. Finn's suit wasn't all that inexpensive, but he could have bought two of those for what his shoes cost.

Lauren's Marina Rinaldi, floral panel crepe dress was black with a pale gold panel overlaid with big black and gray flowers. Her shoes were pale gold ballet flats. Her long hair flowed down her back in big curls. Her makeup was flawless, and completely natural looking other than her signature ‘blow job red' lipstick. I liked the way the dress made her look curvy. Tessa had texted me earlier about the drama when they were getting ready. Kurt had hidden her glasses and forced her to wear her contacts. He knew there would be hell to pay later but to him seeing the cameras flash and show the world that she was just as beautiful as any cheerleader…it was totally worth it.

Kurt and Blaine were the next to walk the carpet since Kurt had somehow decided that his being in the limo with Finn and Lauren would ensure their safe arrival at their destination. The Fashionisto was decked out in head to toe Alexander McQueen. He had on a tonal skull jacquard blazer, python-embossed polo shirt and tonal skull jacquard trousers. Kurt finished off the look with a pair of black tonal harness boots from the McQueen men's shoe line. In a charcoal, three piece Windsor base sharkskin Tom Ford suit, Blaine was looking every inch the indulgent future CEO he was destined to be. Burt and Carole were right behind them with Analyn and William. Puck said that his Grandmother had gone straight gangsta on Finn's mom. She had selected and purchased Carole's dress and sent it to her when she heard from an exasperated Ms. Pillsbury that Carole had purchased something that was under a hundred bucks because she was worried about cost with all of Finn's medical bills. Ruth Mayzer had told the nurse and mother that the shades of blue, Halston Heritage, one shoulder, ombre printed gown was on sale too. What Puck didn't know was that the whole sale thing was a small white lie Carole would never have to know about and she looked amazing in the dress. But Coach Sue had found out, so I knew…and I was a great secret keeper. Kurt said that Blaine's mom, Analyn, had picked her favorite little black dress, a black La Petite Robe di Chirara Boni Mariarita off-the-shoulder cocktail dress with black and white polka dot peplum and a pair of Louboutin Fleuve slingback pumps.

Ludacris interrupted the flow of Limians. He looked very fly and was escorting his girlfriend/fiancée Eudoxie Agnan. The rapper and actor was followed soon by Queen Latifah, MC Lyte, Brandy, Yo-Yo and Monica. Steve Harvey and his wife Marjorie walked the carpet with his great-nephew James and Quinn Fabray. Quinn looked amazing in a Rosie sleeveless, lace-trimmed, black pencil dress, with red mesh overlay. It was an unexpected look for Quinn but according to Tessa it was one Marjorie Harvey had insisted would be perfect for the blonde. The wife of the media magnate had been absolutely correct. Walking behind them were the tenants of six and eight Covent Ave. I knew all of them only through the things Puck told me in emails. He'd hipped me to the gossip when the tall third generation Irish-American, Jon, had ditched Mallory halfway through the first semester. That night he was accompanied by a petite woman with long flame red curls named Reeda O'Kelly. Wow, she was definitely Irish born and bred. She must have been the young lady in several of his classes Puck had said that he was crushing on right after Christmas. His roommate, Ben attended with his girlfriend of several months, Rosa. Ryan and Jamie had come together mainly because neither wanted to walk the carpet alone, though the two roommates had grown really close. Seth and Summer were right behind them. Those two I followed on Twitter and Instagram…but I'd been doing that since I discovered Atomic County online. Thankfully, in her designer red silk mini dress, it looked like Summer had ditched the whole ‘hippie' thing and glammed up nicely. She had tweeted out that in her purse she carried a small picture of her best friend who would have loved the night had she lived.

"Nancy, is that Olympic gold medal weightlifter Marc Fisher?" Brooke asked as Marc and Coach Bieste walked up the carpet. Shannon Bieste looked beautiful. Her short curls had been threaded through with a black metallic headband. Her makeup was on point. It didn't look like she was wearing much makeup and what she was wearing was really pretty. That shade of warm rich red looked good on her. She had shocked everyone, even Coach Sue, when she arrived at Bubbie Ruth with the little black dress and heels. But despite having decided upon the least likely outfit Shannon Bieste felt as beautiful as she looked. Walking at her side, the tall, broad, muscular gym owner looked as pleased and proud as any man there.

Emma Pillsbury looked ethereal and lovely on the arms of her new therapist, Dr. Ben Harmon. She was wearing a pretty Ted Baker of London floral print on cerulean blue, sheath midi dress with clean lines and cap sleeves. Her heels were closed toe, but she was there smiling proudly. Her doctor was accompanying her for two reasons, both of which he was well aware of; helping her even be able to visit a city as dirty as New York without running screaming and the attractive Dr. Harmon was firmly willing to play pretend so she could get Will Schuester back in the worst way…showing up on the arm of a very successful, very handsome, well-to-do doctor. When she had told Coach Sue the plan, Coach had laughed so hard she had almost peed. It was Coach that talked her into the super high nude heels…they did make her look less like a kid playing dress up. It was a good look for her.

Right behind them was Sue Sylvester and Don Motta, It looked like Coach had had the ladies at Elizabeth Arden recreate the look that went with the jumpsuit four years before when Kurt and Mercedes had given her her Madonna makeover. Don's Armani suit was classic and fit in anywhere. They had finally decided to let everyone know that they were dating. For the most part, Sugar had taken it pretty well. But it had taken some work to get her to calm down from her ‘eww, old people having a sexual relationship, and my dad nonetheless' temper tantrum she threw. RJC said it was pretty epic as far as tantrums went. Sugar's father was going to pay for her to have some cheer training so that she could join the Cheerios for her senior year. That was blackmail at the finest…Coach probably had to appreciate that.

The next limo door opened to reveal Puck's Bubbie Ruth, escorted by her friend Roman, damn Tessa was right…that man is sexilicious… and Warner's KAMA team leads, Deborah, Anika and Christophe. After the meeting and speaking further with Ruth, Anika had completely rethought her look. Rather than go with a Manhattan staple and her own trademark LBD, she decided to strike out of her usual comfort zone and indulged in a light melon colored Elizabeth & James Lela ponte racerback sheath dress with cutouts at the sides and a pair of burnt umber suede, peep toe, lace up boots with rolling wave cutouts finished off her look. Her short hair was sleek and diamonds and amber danced at her ears and wrists. Ruth had taken one look at her outfit and applauded. Deborah looked sleek and modern in a sunset inspired silk sheath dress with a bateau collar and classic nude heels that made her legs look miles long. Christophe was rocking a Calvin Klein suit with alligator loafers. It was amazing what all people will say on their twitter and facebook feeds. Coach had me following all of them so that she could keep apprised of the people influencing the career of her ‘Grammy winning Cheerio'.

There was another influx of celebrities after them, including Lyor Cohen, head of Warner Records, himself, Blake and Miranda, Jake Owen, Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine and the other members of Maroon 5, new Warner Artists ENVY who would by the end of the night make the decision to change their name to Nico&Vinz. Dan Donegan and Mike Wengren of Disturbed, Josh Todd and Keith Nelson of Buckcherry, all stopped and chatted with a couple of the reporters and none of them were silly enough to skip the iCarly cast. It had been hilarious earlier when Adam Lambert had tried and been made an example for all who followed. Samantha Puckett became a national icon in that one moment. She was trending hard on twitter. Kelly Ripa along with her husband, Mark Consuelos, walked the carpet with her co-host Michael Strahan and his fiancée Nicole Mitchell. Seth Green joined Alyson Hannigan and Alexis Denisof as they made their way down the carpet with their former co-stars Nicholas Brendon and Anthony Stewart Head, who happened to be visiting for Slayercon and decided to act as Nicholas' plus one. Seth Meyers and his fiancée Alexi Ashe were preceded by Howard Stern and his wife Beth and followed by Mindy Kaling and Craig Robinson.

Coming in behind the famous comedians and friends, Santana Admira Lopez strutted the red carpet like it was a runway and all the cameras and papz were there for her and her alone. Bubbie Ruth had found her a sleeveless, navy blue, designer dress with a plunging neckline and wrap skirt. The crepe fabric flowed over her slim curves and nipped in at the waist before finishing an inch or so above her knee on one side and halfway down her calf on the other. Her feet were shod in four inch, round toe, open evening sandals that had black platform base and the uppers were a ‘branch' of long thin, navy and green jewel encrusted leaves. Her hair was curled down her back but looked like controlled chaos and sex. Her makeup was dark and her painted lips tempted men to sin. Next to her Artie wore navy blue slacks and a rich cream colored shirt, with a tie the same shade of navy as Santana's dress. Across their boyfriend, Brittany looked cute, sultry and ethereal in a buff colored suede tank dress with a skirt that ended five inches down her long thin legs before turning into long strips of the same colored suede. Her heels were the same material, just a couple of shades darker. Her hair was tamed into a sleek low braided bun that she would be able to unleash right before they took the stage later.

It had been arranged that all the New Directions, new and old would walk the carpet; Mike and Tina walked it together with Jake and Marley right behind them walking with Tessa and Aidan. They were followed by Mercedes' elder brothers and their wives and a slew of Jones uncles, aunts and cousins. Sue had sent me a chart with pictures from her cell phone so I could watch and know who everyone was. Jones' family was definitely not small. Far fewer Mayzer and Howards entered the venue and a rough handful of Puckett cousins joined then. KAMA's extended family members were shadowed by the bulk of the rest of the parents, followed by Saul who escorted his green, Cushnie et Och, plunging neckline jumpsuit clad, wife, Mills Mayzer and her friend, Nadia Merchant, who wore a pale pink eighties inspired mini-dress, with rhinestone studded spaghetti straps and ruching to the center waist connecting the deep plunge with the high center slit. With them Neal, Puck’s cousin, escorted Francesca Jarrard, his girlfriend, in a Black Halo, strapless black mini-fit and flare with a jacquard hem and the last of the former roommates, Madeline St. Claire, who wore a pretty, black and white striped off the shoulder sheath dress, her blonde hair pulled back into a sleek low pony. Mercedes uncle and aunt and the group’s lawyer, Ethan and Amanda Harris were behind them…then it was finally time for KAMA.

"And now escorted by his mother and stepfather is the bad boy of the group, Noah Puckerman" Brooke said to the camera. "Puck, how excited are you tonight and of course, who are you wearing?" she asked him shoving the mic into his face.

Puck stopped and looked at the camera giving it his ‘Zilla hunting prey smile' probably causing a million pairs of soaked panties across the country. "I'm wearing Gucci, and the shoes are Kenneth Cole. Moms is in Kay Unger and George is in...Hugo Boss. As for how excited I am…I'm pretty chill now. Had a nice long shower with Sexy Mama and Sam before she had to report to her hair and makeup people…so life is pretty damn good." Becah smacked his arm for taking it there. But more panties went up in flame, which was exactly his intent.

Back in the studio as they walked away to the door of the venue, Becah wearing a pretty Kay Unger, blue kaleidoscope print A-line cocktail dress and five inch heels. Nancy smiled at the camera and wittily teased. "I don't know who is more attractive Puck or his stepfather George Altman. Single Ladies, it may be time to move to Lima, Ohio if that is what the men there look like." George looked mildly uncomfortable in his designer suit and restrictive and expensive tie.

Nancy O'Dell wasn't all that bright. The two men she found so sexy were both taken, really, really…not going anywhere level taken. Not to mention, men like Puck, Sam, Finn, Mike, and the other gleeks were definitely the exceptions rather than the rule when it came to Lima men.

George didn't look comfortable at all in his suit but behind him Benton was as comfortable as could be in his FUBU navy blue suit. Danica stood on his right in a gorgeous Helen Morley two-piece set in satin. The cocktail dress had rose embroidery, a strapless neckline, peplum drop-waist, straight skirt and hem with center back slit. The fitted silhouette hugged her full, lush hourglass figure beautifully and came with a cropped bolero with shawl collar and short sleeves. Her silver strappy Jimmy Choos, brought her up to her tall husband's strong, proud shoulder. Brooke hesitated for a moment before she smiled at the camera and turned to Mercedes as she moved forward. "KAMA has chosen to have their parents escort them along the red carpet, which I predict is only the first of many. Yes, that's right the lovely lady on the other side of Mercedes Jones' father, Dr. Benton Jones, is not her older sister, it is her mother Dr. Danica Jones. Mercedes, congratulations on ‘SongBird' reaching over half a billion dollars internationally, and there is certainly Oscar buzz, that is huge for your first movie. Are you planning to make any further movies? And please tell us who you are wearing and what you are looking forward to most about tonight?"

On her father's other side, nearest the cameras, Mercedes looked every inch the star. From what I could see on the Saks site, whoever had tailored her dress had raised the hem of the purple dress a total of four inches, widened the cutout along her cleavage to two and a half inches wide allowing more than a glimpse of her beautiful breasts and pulled in all four of the darts until it slid over each of her curves like a lover's caress. Mercedes' hair flowed down her back in huge deep rippling waves, of a thick black waterfall. The ends had been carefully and meticulously turned under. Her makeup was professionally done, her eyes looking wide and innocent. And damn the lashes, someone had shaved a mink for those bad boys. Then her lips looked full, lush, glossy and seductive. Someone had special ordered or blended that lipstick for her. I couldn't find that color anywhere online. It was a frosted purply, really glossy red. I wanted to run to New York and make her give me those shoes. I knew they would fit; she and I both wore the same size. They were black patent leather, five inch heels with a pretty bow over the front. "I'm looking forward to saying a personal thank you to people like Will and Jada Smith, Christina Aguilera, Hugh Laurie and Prince for standing up when it wouldn't have hurt them at all to stay silent. I'm looking forward to giving them a great evening and hopefully showing the world that KAMA is a musical force to be reckoned with. As far as our fashion, Daddy is in FUBU, Momma is in Helen Morley and my dress is from Chiara Boni and my shoes are Valentino. The Oscar buzz is awesome. I would be very honored to have had a part in an Oscar nominated movie. We missed this year's cut off by just a few days, so the suspense is a little killer. As for me making another movie, I just don't know. This one was serendipity at its greatest. I was very lucky and very, very proud to be a part of the film."

As they walked away, Brooke threw a small tease to the studio, Rob Marciano laughed. "You want to talk about growing them right in Lima… both mother and daughter are astonishingly beautiful…I cannot be the only one hearing a Commodores song." He gave the camera a salacious grin. Both women looked amazing and Benton looked justifiably proud.

Brooke Anderson had expected a comment after Nancy's so she was smoother in her announcement of Evans. "Samuel Evans is being escorted by his mother Gabrielle and his father Sander. Sam, you've gone from famine to feast in just a few short years, is all of this very surreal? And of course, please tell the viewers who you are wearing."

Sam's lopsided grin seemed to make Brooke melt right then and there and he probably heated up all the chicks Puck hadn't. "Well I've gotta say surreal is a real good word for it. But I think what is even more surreal is how many Americans are forced to live check to check, or just a check or two away from abject poverty and homelessness when there are a few people who are so rich they couldn't spend it all in sixteen lifetimes. There is something just plain wrong with that. Especially when so many of them are making even more money they can never spend by bankrupting the American worker. Um…as for who we are wearing." He paused and pulled out his phone. "Oh yeah, Mom is wearing Lela Rose. Dad's wearing Armani and I'm in Ralph Lauren." He finished and put up his phone. "Kurt and Bubbie knew that I would forget, so they texted me so I would have it. I still can't believe that I paid more for a suit than I made in two weeks when I worked as a pizza delivery guy." He smiled charmingly.

They continued on their way, stopping, as the others all had to say something to the iCarly crew, though the three Evanses also gave Sam Puckett big hugs. Sam and his father were on either side of a very proud, happy, smiling Gabby. Wearing a Lela Ross off the shoulder tiered A-line dress in a shade of red that the southerner likened to the inside of a watermelon. No one seeing her would realize that she had given birth just three months before. Gabby stepped lightly in a beautiful pair of Stuart Weitzman sandals with goose bump nappa upper. The most expensive shoes Gabby had ever owned boasted a four and half inch covered heel, a thin strap over toes. She had picked them mainly because she loved the metallic leather ankle-cuff. The straight cut of the neckline would have been boring if not for the statement necklace that popped up as being from Saks. The Adriana Orsini Elevate pavé crystal bib necklace was an architectural lattice made up of crystals embedded in rose gold looking metal that definitely added tons of interest to what could have been a sort of boring dress. Kurt had told me all about how Sam had gotten his father a black suit from the best designer Kurt could name and he had spared no expense. According to Santana, the father and son had shared a moment early that evening as they remembered Sam borrowing from Sander the significantly less expensive black suit he had worn to prom and worn the night the group had been discovered by Lyor Cohen. They had come a million miles from the lean times two years before. Now Sander Evans was walking a red carpet before an event to celebrate his son's first album wearing an Armani Collezioni Giorgio model suit, a dove gray shirt and an eggplant purple tie, and the biggest, most proud smile that had ever crossed his face.

While the parents had escorted KAMA up the red carpet, the trio entered the concourse together to the applause of their assembled VIPs. The trio was holding hands and every single person there had not a doubt in their minds that they were deeply in love and happier than most people ever got to experience. Unfortunately that was all I got to see. I shot Puck, Mercedes, and Kurt emails telling them how good, proud and happy they'd looked and asking them to tell me all about what had happened in the party. Man, my parents were so not cool. I cannot believe that I had to miss a night that awesome. I couldn't wait to see what Coach Sue brought me back from the party. Sulking more than a little, I turned off my laptop and headed down to make sure my parents understood how unhappy I was. But before I left the room I sent up a little prayer that Jones, Evans and Puckerman would have the biggest, bestest night ever.

Get This Party Started (Pink)  
Puck PoV

We walked up in that party like ‘kaboom, guess who stepped in da room'. It was epic and it was awesome. The concourse was tricked out. On either side of the room there was a big screen display showing ‘ColorBlind' on one side and ‘The Fighter' on the other. When each video finished they showed some of the extra footage that wasn't used. Beneath each of the screens there were big ass tables that had our CDs…our muthafucking CDs…for sale. Each one cost fifteen bucks there, but once they hit stores they would go up to anywhere from eighteen to twenty-two bucks. There were also twenty dollar tee-shirts, fifty dollar hoodies and other merch, all picked out by the Zilla himself, available for purchase…though it probably wouldn't start to sell until the doors opened for regular ticket holders. There was a large bar against the back wall with a smaller one closer to the stairs, escalator and elevator from the atrium.

There were a whole lot of people milling around, talking and shit. I swear I saw Melissa Etheridge talking to Jada Pinkett-Smith. That was the coolness. Steve Harvey was introducing James, Quinn and her roommates to Seth Green who was in turn introducing his former cast mates to Steve Harvey and the rest of that party. I noticed that Cede's Uncle Jo-Jo had immediately gotten dragged over to Will Smith by his wife Cheryl…she was an AVID fan. According to Moms D, Cheryl Jones had gone through seven ID4 tapes before it was ever released on DVD. I smirked to myself when I saw that Coach Tanaka had had the balls to come. His bullshit belief that allowing us, hell encouraging us, to torment the glee kids and Finn when he joined up made us better when all it did was make us pathetic made me invite him. If I had followed his path, I would still be in Lima…probably repeating my senior year…definitely being a loser. I wanted him to see exactly where embracing being a New Direction had led me and Sam to. I pointed him out to Sexy Mama. She rolled her eyes and flicked him off surreptitiously. Sam laughed. And we finally headed further into the room, stepping into our future.

There were waiters and waitresses in KAMA purple button down shirts and charcoal pants walking through the room with trays of the passed appetizers and glasses of the mocktail, pink grapefruit and pomegranate soda in a martini glass, and sparkling cider in a champagne flute. Since there were a lot of people there under twenty-one, we'd decided that we'd keep the passed drinks non-alcoholic and let the party goers who wanted alcohol hit the bars. We weren't braceleting the VIPs like we were the ticket purchasers, but for the most part, the bartenders could tell who was old enough and who wasn't. The seven appetizers had been hard to pick. SpoonBread had so many different choices, but we'd picked one that we all agreed on pretty easy. The fried shrimp with garlic and ginger sauce was really, really good. We fought over our favorites for like twenty minutes after we agreed so easily on the first one. We may love each other in a fierce and almost scarily strong way, but we were still three strong as hell personalities…fights happened. The thing that made us great was that they were also resolved. We decided to have the shrimp and then we'd each pick two. It was funny, looking around the room…I guess I didn't expect the Hollywood types to eat, but they were chowing down.

Before I could point that out to my boos, we were waylaid by Anika. "Alright, you guys look great. You seem happy and ready. Now, you can go and say hello to your families, but in fifteen minutes, I need you ready to go and get your mingle on. Oh and I'm going to arrange some PAs for you to interview when you interview the agents and managers. Seriously, you are going to have to find someone to corral you three kittens." She muttered. It did seem like she was always the one forced to make us stay on schedule at events.

"Make them all gay dudes." Sam suggested. "Straight women might get tempted. Straight men will sure as hell get tempted and so would lesbians. Gay dudes tend not to like me and Puck. At least none of the gay dudes we know."

Mercedes rolled her eyes. "There are so many things wrong with that statement I don't even know where to start. You and Puck are totally gay dude or straight women catnip. Kurt totally crushed on both of you back in the day. In fact even when you add in Karofsky, who we all know prefers his men stick skinny, I have caught every single homosexual male we know checking you out on more than one occasion. Second of all, it doesn't matter what gender or orientation we hire because while they might be tempted, none of us will be. And last, but definitely not least, it is illegal to allow any of that to be a concern when hiring someone. It's called discrimination. We should just want someone qualified who meshes well with the people they will have to work with and around all the time."

I guess she had a valid point so I told her so. "Can they be Jewish…I mean, right now I'm like the only Jew in our whole entourage."

She thumped me in the shoulder so I pretended to be hurt and led her and Sam to where a few of my family members they didn't know were congregated. "These are Paul's brothers, Aaron and Matthew." I introduced them to the two handsome, yet mildly distracted men. Even among the VIP there were plenty of chicks around that they were probably itching to scam on. "Aaron, Matt…these are my boos, Sam and Mercedes." I didn't like my father's brothers very much more than I liked Paul. I had invited them to rub their noses in the fact that the kid they said Paul should have made Mom abort was a hell of a lot more than an albatross around the neck of a boil on the backside of humanity like Paul Puckerman. Petty maybe…but I didn't care.

Aaron Puckerman looked embarrassed and a little harassed. Which told me that he understood exactly why he'd been invited. Then again, he always had been the smartest of the three brothers. Still he couldn't help but ask, "Noah. You're only twenty years old. Why on earth are you already tying yourself down?"

Matthew looked amused. "Yeah, I mean, I get the whole bisexual thing. Some of the best nights in my life have involved chicks who liked other chicks too. But damn, there are a lot of other chicks and guys out there, you really only want to bone these two for the rest of your life?"

I rolled my eyes. "Did I happen to mention that Matt is trying to get into the Guinness book of records for having the most number of treated cases of syphilis in one person in history?"

"What? It's completely curable." Matthew defended. "And hey, I never lie to any chick. I never say I'm gonna be their main course. I'm strictly the dessert lover."

I heard someone snort nearby and a muffled conversation. "See it sounded just as stupid back when you said it."

"Babe, I said it because you see dessert as the base of your food pyramid." A masculine voice replied.

I couldn't hear anything else from them as I had my attention pulled back to the conversation I was a part of. "Look, Matt, I can already tell that you are less annoying than your brother. Actually, by quite a lot. I find you at least mildly amusing and I wouldn't piss on Paul Puckerman if he was on fire. But if you try and lure Puck back into his former man-whore ways right in front of me ever again… there will have to be consequences and repercussions." Sam warned.

Aaron smiled. "I'm surprised you met Paul. Last I heard he was in Vegas working his way through show girls."

"Naw, that was like two years back. Last time I talked to him he was in Denver trying to get in on one of those new legal weed places." Matthew argued.

The three of us all exchanged looks. Sexy Mama's look said ‘how can they not know'.

Sam's look was more of a ‘are they gonna make a scene if we tell them?'

While I was just thinking ‘I wouldn't have invited them if I knew that they didn't know.' They both poked me in my sides. Rather than even approach that issue, I turned to a whole different bad idea of a topic. "So did Paul ever tell you two about his other kid?"

"Well, yeah, but we assumed that your little sister was too little to be here tonight." Aaron started looking around for Sarah.

Sam shook his head. "Sarah is with my brother and sisters and Mercy's sisters they are all here in the city, but Warner got them a nanny, or five."

I looked around and saw that Jake and Marley were actually talking to Jesse J nearby. I snagged a waiter and pointed him out. Jake and Marley finished up with Jesse J, who was good people and really polite to the excited kids, and came over. "Jake Puckerman…meet your uncles Aaron and Matthew."

Jake gave me a hella crazy look. "There are more of them?" I nodded and gestured to the two men who bore a striking resemblance to our father and to be honest to both of us. "Momma never said that Paul had brothers."

Mercedes scoffed. "She probably didn't know. No offense, Jake, but your mom was just one of Paul's many side chicks. He probably only shared enough to convince her that he was baring his soul to her." Matthew and Aaron both looked a little surprised. "Don't get it twisted, I've never been anybody's side piece, but I am a Harris woman. We know all the tricks of shysty men and shady women…we're related to more than a few."

They chose to ignore that little tidbit. I knew it was true though…other than her mom and her Uncle Ethan, the folks on that side could easily have played by the same play book as the two men in front of us. "Does Paul know about you?" Aaron asked looking Jake over. "Damn, you look like you could be mine."

Jake smirked a little at that. "Well, considering that I’ve been talking to you for almost as long as I’ve talked to Paul and you haven’t made me want to punch you in the throat, I'd be willing to take the trade…but my mother still swears that she and Paul are meant to be. She kicked me out because I refused to go see that jackass, no offense, in jail."

"None taken." Matt said quietly.

Before he could ask the inevitable question, ‘why was Paul in jail', I decided it was time for us to make like bananas and split. "Look, we hate to change the perimeters of your world and leave, but we only have a few more minutes before we have to start hobnobbing, so you guys talk, we'll catch up with you later."

We used the rest of our time to say hello to Bubbie, and Coach Bieste. "Wow coach, you clean up good." I laughed and gave her a hug. "I mean, you're always a beautiful woman, but you look outstanding tonight."

Mercedes hugged her tightly too. "I love your dress and those shoes are killer."

"Oh, my, GaGa." Kurt blurted as he joined us. "Coach Bieste, you look amazing. That dress is pretty and you definitely wear it well. But the joy and confidence radiating from you is what really makes the outfit. Where on earth did you find that delightful coin necklace?"

They started chatting about the outfit and we had to move on. Before we could find anyone else, Anika popped back up. "Alright, time to schmooze." She smiled.

She took us to Prince first. I tried not to geek out, but how do you not freak out when you're talking guitars with Prince? When we proved that we weren't just idiot kids, that we actually knew how to read and compose music, he pretty much gave us his seal of approval. It was epic. "Always write your own music, and never allow anyone else to control your masters." He advised before he turned the conversation to the night. "I'm looking forward to hearing you live. Supposedly it is even better than your albums. But first. Please share with me who did you get to cater this event. These red pepper & broccoli mini-quiches are excellent."

Mercedes answered him and then Anika whisked us off to talk with the Smiths. After listening to our profuse thanks for their kind words after our engagement video was leaked, Will told us we were welcome and changed the topic. "Your aunt is on point little girl." Will laughed as soon as he could get a word in edgewise.

"Did she tell you how many copies of Independence Day she has killed in the last twenty years?" Cede laughed. "I didn't even know you could wear out a DVD."

"I just loved that she slipped and called me Lena James." Jada laughed. "I don't know how long it's been since I heard that name."

"I bet you get Nairobi a lot more." Sam nodded sagely. "That's what I think of. You were awesome in the Matrix movies."

"Why thank you, kind sir." Jada teased. Sam's accent was getting thicker and thicker as he got more and more nervous.

I smiled. "Yeah, I'll be honest, I don't know what movie Lena James was from and I only saw the Matrix movies because Sam bribed me with a blow job for every hour of them I successfully sat through…but I do I have your second Wicked Wisdom CD. My mom got it for me since I couldn't buy CDs yet. I really liked ‘Bleed All Over Me'."

Will threw back his head in laughter. "You can't even laugh…it took something like that to get me to sit all the way through ‘Bagger Vance'." Jada poked her husband in his chest.

We only chatted a little more with them before Anika led us on to speak with Mary Jo White. The famous attorney was working with Antwan, Ethan, Sandy Cohen and the Warner legal team to force TMZ and the conservative pundits to keep our love out their mouths. She was nice, but it was easy to tell she was mainly at the party because she wanted to get some things to make her the hip cool aunt and godmother…but that was cool with us. After that we managed to speak with a whole boat load of stars. I got to taste all the appetizers and decided that my favorite was still the lobster & shrimp in chardonnay sauce in vol au verts. I still had no idea what the last part meant but it tasted amazing. The last group we chatted with before we had to report to the green room was the group of seven prospective managers that Lyor wanted us to choose from in the coming weeks. He had already sent us their CVs and resumes…all of which came with head shots. Like their looks mattered when it came to being our manager.

Renaissance Forrest was a cat in his early thirties who billed himself as a creative consultant, branding specialist, music manager & A&R, screenwriter, and event producer. On paper he seemed like a great pick. But he didn't seem to like to stay put. That you could tell from his paperwork, what I didn't know was whose idea it was for him to leave his previous engagements and why they didn't work out. The next manager wannabe was Candice Meltice. She was pretty, somehow had gone from getting a BFA in theatre from NYU to acting as a manager for a local band. She didn't have as much experience in music management as she had in film directing…but apparently Lyor saw something in her that wasn't readily apparent in her LinkedIn profile. Haja Johnston was Mercedes favorite. He had graduated from a HBCU down in Atlanta. He had degrees in both management and in fashion design. He was older than the others but everything that we read about him made him seem like his age wasn't going to be a big factor. Ameri Schindler was next in the lineup. She was Jewish…like full on, resident of both Israel and America, Jewish. She had a business degree from Montclair, and had spent time as a real estate agent and worked on Wall Street. She had spent the last two years in music management. The small record company she'd worked for had gotten swallowed up by Warner, which had brought her to Lyor's attention. My only problem with her was that she technically lived in Jersey. I couldn't explain why that bothered me…it just did.

Then there was the tatted up, androgynous, musician turned artist turned manager Jessie Kerrville. His former band had been into grind metal, shit was a little too heavy even for me. But to each his own. Now dude was calling himself the Swiss army knife of hustling. My only problem with him was that I'd heard the old adage about Jacks of All Trades being masters of none from Sam's MeMaw and I couldn't help but worry that it applied to him. Number six was a black woman who had degrees in physical therapy and business administration. She had worked in the industry first as a model/singer. She managed a couple of very urban groups and helped one of them start a fashion line. Her name was pronounced Erica, but she spelled it kind of crazy, but not like Erykah Badu. Her last name was Hoffman though, so that was cool. The last one of the bunch was the most nondescript. Dex Boccio seemed to be average white guy. I worried that the dude was like related to The Situation or something. He seemed really interesting in his lack of interestingness. He had tons of experience in sales, but I couldn't see him as our manager. However, Sexy Mama had made us promise to give them all a fair shot. So we would.

We chatted with them long enough to get a feel for each of them. Some were a little aggressive. Some didn't seem to care one way or another. One seemed sketchy as hell. Once we left them, Anika showed us to the Green Room that we were to utilize for getting changed and everything. But before we made it all the way to the doors, a familiar hand reached out and grabbed Sexy Mama's hand. "You know Miss Thang, when most people say they are gonna be a world famous rockstar, it's just a pipe dream."

Sam stopped and turned blurting out, "and who is you?" before either Mercedes or I could say anything.

Matt just laughed and took his hand off our woman and thrust it towards Sam for a handshake. "Hi, I'm Matt Rutherford. I used to go to school with your boyfriend and girlfriend."

"Oh yeah sorry." Sam had the grace too look sheepish at his quick flair of jealousy. "You're the one who moved right before I got to McKinley. Puck and Mike have told me tons about you. You're at UGA or UVA or something."

"UNC actually." Matt chuckled.

Sam nodded. "Sorry, I knew it was a southern school."

Matt chuckled. "Don't worry about it. It's all over the net that you had to check your phone's memo pad to see the names of your outfit's designers. Don’t be surprised if people start sending you Ginkgo biloba."

Anika was looking really, really testy, so we had to say our goodbyes, "dude, sit with the crew so we can find you later." I told him as we got lead away.

The NYIT green rooms were really nice. They had two of them on the auditorium level. Sam, Cede and I were in the smaller of the two the rest of our team was in the other. Only Brittany and Santana had to change. We'd offered the band and everyone the chance to join us at the drop party, but they had elected to hang back and get their minds right. That first change was almost a relief. We got to get out of our suits and into some dark wash jeans. I threw on my burgundy ‘Out Individuality' tee shirt. I had a cool blazer to wear when we gave our welcome speech, but unlike my boy, Sam, I couldn't stand playing in long sleeves. They usually ended feeling like they got in my way when I was really rockin'. I threw on my tech boots and I was good to go. Sam was changed just as quickly. Black jeans, a black smedium tee and a hella cool Givenchy Digital Love black blazer. He had gotten a pair of black All-Stars just for the night. It took us less than ten minutes then we had to wait on Cede.

Sexy Mama had her work cut out for her to change. First she had to get out of her dress, shoes and shaper slip. Before she did anything else, she sprayed herself with Dove Dry-Spray deodorant under her arms and under her boobs…she even hit the creases under her booty cheeks. Once she was satisfied with her odor prevention, she tackled getting dressed again. The other shaper slip had included a bra, so taking it off meant that she had to put back on a different bra, this one had straps and demi cups that she used double sided tape to make sure she would stay in. The new bra had been carefully matched so that it was the exact shade of burgundy as her stage outfit. After that she fought her way into a pair of shimmery shaper pantyhose that were almost the exact same color as her beautiful brown skin. Even with the fact that the pantyhose were super-duper control top, thigh shaping, spanx things, once they were all the way up and perfectly in place, she still worked another shaper thing that looked like high waisted granny panties up over them. She looked through the kit and found her ‘lucky' cross. Only after she had fastened it around her neck, did she step into the Emilio Pucci, slit-back, hanging angel sleeve, short jumpsuit with a wide scalloped leather belt that cinched in her waist. I thought that it looked like Stevie Nicks and Beyoncé had a love child and the kid had designed what Mercedes Jones had chosen to wear that on stage.

Mercedes pulled out her travel makeup kit and changed her face. I mean, it was clearly still the same face, but everything got ramped up. Her eyes looked even sexier and her lips went to a super glossy wine color. She added some shimmer that had little to no color to it to her cheeks and wherever her skin peeked through the slits of the jumpsuit, she rubbed in a shimmery lotion thing. She fluffed her hair up and looked assessingly into the mirror. She pulled off the earrings she had worn with the purple dress and went through the other pairs she had with her. Sexy Mama held up two different pairs, one pair up at each ear, asking us which pair. Sam and I both pointed at the same pair. It was a pair that started with a marquis clear quartz stud, and then finished in long silver spears that would brush her shoulders. With the jagged, flowy sleeves, those looked perfect.

It seemed like we had just gotten back there when the stage manager tapped on the door. "Five minutes ‘til your welcome."

We nodded. Then we had to stay completely still while Mercedes sprayed our faces with a special stage makeup for men that would help us not shine or sweat all to be damned while we were on the stage under the lights. We helped her balance while she stepped into the four inch tall, silvery, INC International Concepts women's Sharee high heel rhinestone curvy, strappy sandals that Mercedes had been practicing in for the last few weeks. Just as we finished zipping them up for her, another knock sounded… "It's Time."

 

Sometimes Dreams Come True (Jesse J)  
Mercedes PoV

Stepping out onto that stage, even just to give the welcome was awesome. We'd written an outline of what we wanted to say, but agreed that mainly we would speak from the heart. "Ladies and Gentlemen, we won't take up much of your time. We want you to enjoy your evening of music and listening to us talkin' ain't really what you're here for."

"However, we would be remiss if we didn't thank each and every one of you for coming out tonight. We want to thank many of you for defending us in the press. We want to thank you for downloading our music. We want to thank you for being here to celebrate the launch of our first album. So thank each and every one of you. But there are a few people that we need to thank individually and by name." I continued after Sam.

"Thank you Sander and Gabrielle Evans, thank you Rose Felding Puckett…thank you Samson Carmine Puckett up in heaven…thank you for loving me. Thank you for believing in me. Grandpa, thank you for teaching me to play the guitar. Thank you Mr. CJ Michaels; you were the only teacher in the Jefferson County Tennessee schools to see that I wasn't actually stupid. You identified my dyslexia and you helped me begin the journey that I am still on today. I wouldn't be in college if not for you. So thank you. Oh and of course thank you Mr. Lyor Cohen. You heard our voices and wouldn't rest until we were heard by the world. Thank you for deciding that we were special. We're gonna make all of you very proud." Sam smiled happily waving out into the sea of faces.

Puck voice rang out next. "I have to thank my mother Rebecah Mayzer Puckerman, she gave me life. She gave me and my little sister every part of her soul. She taught me to respect myself. She tried to teach me to respect women, but unfortunately so many of you don't respect yourselves, it was really easy to ignore that." I reached out and smacked him upside the back of the head. "Ouch…you know I respect you, Sexy Mama, you'd kick my ass if I didn't. Thank you to Carole Hudson-Hummel, you never judged me for my dad. You fed me and Sarah when Momma just couldn't make ends meet. You provided a second parental figure in my life after Paul took off. You didn't have to. Most parents in Lima wouldn't let me play with their kids in elementary because Paul was an asshole and Mom worked two jobs. But you saw past all the bullshit and saw me and I can never say thank you enough for that. Ruth and Saul Mayzer. You two are the best grandmother and uncle in the world and I will fight anyone who tries to say different. George Altman, thank you for loving my mother the way she deserves. Thank you for showing me what the hell a dad is supposed to be, and for giving me another little sister. Thank you for choosing to do the same for Jake, he needs you even more than I do. Beth, you are with a sitter tonight, but thank you for making your Abah have to grow the hell up and learn what a real man is. Coach Tanaka…I know you think I should thank you. But dude you are the WORST educator in the history of the institution. Teaching big ass football players to bully and beat up kids less than half their size…even one in a wheelchair, that's just fucked up. I know we said no filming other than ours and Freddie, but man do I hope that me saying that gets back to your bosses. Instead I want to thank Coach Shannon Bieste. Bieste, you taught me that being a machine on the gridiron didn't have to mean being an asshole the rest of the time. So thank you." He looked sheepish. "Sorry…I was supposed to keep it short."

I rolled my eyes as the crowd full on laughed at his silliness. "I thought I was going to be the wind bag since my list is so long." The audience chuckled appropriately. "I want to thank my mother and father, Danica and Benton Jones, DDS…and a bunch of other dental related letters. I'm gonna steal the words of one of the coolest chicks I have ever met. Thank you both for giving me roots and giving me wings. Ms. Lambert, please don't mind that I just said that. Devon, Kevon, Tricie and Tonya, my brothers and their wives…thanks for always supporting me no matter what. To my grandmother, great-aunts and uncles, all my uncles, aunts and cousins those who believed in me know that I love you and without you I would not be me…and those who didn't I love you anyway because we are a family…but I'll keep it real, if you did believe in me I'm way more likely to loan you money." I joked. "Thank you to April Rhodes. You didn't have to give us the money to keep our glee club going four years ago, but you did. So I and all those who have proudly sung and danced in the name of the McKinley High New Directions, to two about to be three national championships, thank you more than any words I can utter could ever say. Without you, we wouldn't be a family of our own choosing. You know what. Rachel Berry and Mr. Schue…Thank the two of you too. You taught me the value of believing in myself when no one else would. The two of you tried to steal my shine. You tried to clip my wings…but here I am incandescent and flying high. Lyor Cohen and Shelby Cochran, thank you for believing in me and helping me to cast off the shade others tried to keep me in. Que, Tana, Britts, Tee, Elle-Boogie, Kurtsie, Jolly Finn Giant, Magic Mike, Artie…thank you guys for being our friends…our family." I smiled radiantly.

"Friends; past, present and future; Family, by blood and by choice; Warner's KAMA team, our band…business associates and fans… thank each of you from the bottom of our hearts. We hope that you enjoy the up and coming artist we found to entertain your first. Please give Max Schneider a warm round of applause, and we'll see you in about thirty minutes." Puck finished off for us. "Oh, and in the lobby CDs and merch will be available all night." 

We headed back into the back, but rather than going back to our solitary green room, with unspoken agreement we headed to the band's ready room. The dancers we in the hall, already changed and stretching out their muscles. The four young women looked super cute in wide leg, burgundy dancer's pants and a matching cage back, knit bra top. Their feet were shod in burgundy and black, unisex, hip-hop dance shoes. The two guys were wearing black martial arts type pants and a smedium burgundy tank top with a hood. It was cute that their shoes were the same as the girls. As soon as we entered the room we heard Damien, Adam, Tana and Xena were going through their warm ups. Santana and Xena's body types were so different that it had been a little difficult to figure out what they should wear. Fortunately both of them have the same color hair and are both perfectly fine showing off their figures. So we found them each a simple burgundy romper with illusion neckline and wrapped a silver link chain belt around their waists. They were each wearing black lace open toe booties, though Santana's had a higher heel and Xena's had a higher shaft. Xena's hair would have been curly if it weren't past her backside. As it was it was still really wavy, so they looked perfect together. Both Adam and Damien were wearing dark wash, relax fit jeans, boots and burgundy Henley shirts.

I looked over to the other side of the room and saw our band members chilling. Erica and Cassidy had both purchased fake leather leggings and burgundy tops. Erica's had tight forearms and willowy upper sleeves, but Cassidy's looked almost like she had gotten a time machine and found a cool, classically cut V-neck tunic. Dave was in black on black as he twisted and twirled his drumsticks, loosening up his wrists. He did wear burgundy and black wrist bands. I didn't worry about it. There was a chance that the black shirt wouldn't last the night anyway. Drumming was hard work. Justin was in a pair of black jeans, he'd found a cute tee shirt that was the right color and read ‘DREAM BIG', and he'd tossed on a short sleeve button down shirt in burgundy and black plaid over it. It made sense to warm up together, so we pulled the two halves of the room together and we all went through vocal warm-ups and the guys loosened up their fingers, wrists and arms.

Time seemed to fly by. It seemed like we'd just gotten there when the stage manager was knocking on the doors to tell us that we had only five minutes. After prying for God’s grace, wisdom and mercy to bless us with a great performance for those who had paid good money to see us, we gathered everything that we still had to take forward with us, so the guitars and bass…everything else was on stage. There was a five minute break where the band got into place and Sam, Puck and I were fitted with headset mics. The beautiful part of the wireless amplifier set up meant that we were ready to go pretty quickly. Tana, Damien, Xena and Adam walked out in that order to the four standing mics. I knew that it was way old school and almost kitschy to have them dressed alike and arranged so specifically, but that was kind of the vibe we wanted to create. We were taking things back to the old school. Just with modern flair and inclusivity and fusions. Rainbow and the dancers got into place on the stage next. Two groups of three, two girls and one guy in each group they formed small triangles on either side of center stage. Either the crowd really did love us just that much, or Max had gotten them all hyped up. Then again it was probably six of one and half a dozen of the other.

We started the set with ‘The Fighter'. It was an upbeat number that had been very good for us and the crowd already knew it. Plus, Rainbow had come up with a great contemporary, hip-hop fusion dance for it that always made my jaw drop. After that Noah took the lead and we performed ‘Almost Lover'. He said that he had written the lyrics to that when he and I broke up after we dated the first time. It was a slower song, and showcased both Puck's guitar abilities and his voice. We followed that one with ‘Hell to the No'. A fun, up tempo song that made me laugh even as I was singing it. I was still surprised that it made the cut for the CD, but everyone though that teenager would love it. I noticed that Willow and Jaden Smith and Cher Lloyd sure seemed to, so maybe they were right about the song's appeal. Sam slowed us back down with a moving tribute to America's veterans called ‘Some Gave All'. We brought back the three part lead with a ballad, ‘If You Asked Me Too'. That was how we had organized our show. A shared lead song, then songs that we each led or a duet or two, before coming back together in a shared song. We had twenty four songs prepared for the night. The twenty from the CD, plus ‘The Fighter' and we were each going to cover our lovers’ favorite song to hear us sing. The kicker was that the band knew which song we'd picked for each other but we had no clue what we were singing. 

We finished the last song before the intermission when Sam stepped forward. "When we were planning this night we picked what we decided was a sure fire way to show the world that Mr. Cohen had the right idea when he signed ups up to Warner. So two of us decided on a song that the third would sing for you. The person singing has no idea what song that we picked for them, or them for me…Mercedes, you're first up. Puck and I had originally picked ‘Ain't No Way'. Because they," he gestured to the crowd, "have to see what we got to see at the Night of Neglect. But we mentioned it to Finn after he finished his ‘scare the bejesus out of us all' nap, and he said that we needed to have you do ‘I Will Always Love You', because he had heard you singing it when Rachel and Schue had been putting you down again and it was the perfect showcase of how amazing your voice is." He explained to me and the audience. "So please make your idol proud, Baby."

I smiled at him, trying not to let nerves get to me. It was an iconic song. It was a difficult song. It was a song I hadn't sung in a long while. But we'd agreed. So I took center stage and I sang that song to the spirit of Whitney Houston. I sang it for all she was and all she could have been. I sang it to my loves, I knew that we would be together forever, but every love song I sang was for them…even the sad, ones about heartache and heart break.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAlkk6EjW6k

When I finished the room was quiet. I opened eyes I didn't quite realize I had closed and saw that the audience was dumbfounded. Then it happened. I heard Pink's distinctive voice yell out over the silence. "I'm doing the next duet with her. Jill, you had her first…but oh my DAMN!" and like that the dam burst and everyone was on their feet screaming and clapping. I did a small curtsey with a huge smile on my face. Then Sam and Puck joined me and we bowed together. We introduced our dancers, and as we said their name they stepped forward sketched a bow and ran off stage. Then we did the same for the background singers. And ended with the band. We were the last off the stage; we had thirty minutes to change, drink copious amounts of water and get back out there. But I couldn't help but wish I could have been a fly on the wall of the concourse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, you've been a great audience.  
> Please remember to tip your waitresses...oh wait...  
> Please remember to review your authors.  
> And anyone who is interested in applying to Beta the Learning French Series going forward, please PM me. I need one to two new betas. Please & thank you.


	17. How Do You Sleep? (John Lennon), Glad You Came (The Wanted), You Oughta Know (Alanis Morissette), Something to be Proud of (Montgomery Gentry) & Living Your Dreams (Raini Rodriguez)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ****THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****
> 
> Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories:  
> This Chapter Dedicated to Mykroft & Cecily Mitchell, two of my Learning French Series reviewers.  
> I appreciate all of you.
> 
> Anyone who is interested in applying to Beta the Learning French Series going forward, please PM me. I need one to two new betas. Please & thank you.

CASTING CALL (FACE CLAIMS)  
Syesha Raquel Mercado as Erica Chance  
Dave Briggs as Dave Briggs  
Desiree Casado as Cassidy Carter  
Jared Padalecki as Justin Alexander  
Julie Strain as Xena Garrison  
Brandon T. Jackson as Adam Kress  
Jordan Fisher as Damien Forteneau  
Curtis Holland as Simeon Drakkar  
Jasmine Mason as Bianca Gorans  
Alan Bersten as Jackson Pressley  
Alexis Juliano as Elena Ramirez  
Rino Nakasone Razalan as Rainbow

 

How Do You Sleep? (John Lennon)  
Benton Jones PoV

My wife is a very, very smart woman. She had wrung a promise from me that I would not approach William Schuester? I had been aching to give that man a piece of my mind for years, but she had the upper hand in our relationship and we both knew it, and to be honest I liked it that way. It was more difficult than I could say not to seek him out before the concert portion of the evening started, but after my baby girl's admonition to him and that Berry girl…it was almost impossible. I was trying to contemplate exactly how my mother and uncles would react to my secret, hell I still couldn’t believe that I had shared it with George, Sander and Saul, when who should pop their happy ass into my field of vision but the curly headed bastard himself. "Well, I must have been a very good boy in a previous life." I said rather than spouting off bullshit I didn't mean. "I've been wanting to have a little one on one talk with you for years."

"Really." Schuester muttered weakly. "I can understand…"

"No. you can't. You cannot possibly understand how much I would love to punch you right in your face. See you don't have children. You don't have to watch your child come home day after day growing from a vivacious, happy little girl to someone who has to harden her heart just to stop it from being needlessly and carelessly broken. Not by the bullies and assholes, she gave them as good as they gave her for the most part…no…it was from the people that she thought she could trust, the people she thought that she could rely on. It was from your small minded, bigoted, prejudiced ass that she got ambushed and waylaid. She thought you were on her side. Even though I figured your ass out quick, she still believed that you were a mentor to her, that you cared about her. She would excuse all manner of tiny slights you threw her way. After all ‘you were just trying to act in the best interest of the glee club'."

"I…I…" he stammered like the little punk bitch he was.

"You…you…you looked at my daughter and saw just another black chick who can sing. You never saw her beyond that. You didn't see the star potential in her because you only saw the color of her skin or the size of her hips. My daughter has been a star since she was seven years old and she sang ‘Greatest Love of All' at a youth program at church. She got a standing ovation. Have you ever been to a black church and seen a seven year old sing Whitney Houston and have every person get on their feet? No, it's impossible. In the black church there are a few people we pretty hold almost as sacrosanct as God…Aretha Franklin, Sam Cooke, Mahalia Jackson and Whitney Houston. You sing one of them and if you do a fabulous job you will get ninety to ninety five percent of the people to stand while applauding you, but that's usually reserved for the Pastor's wife or someone who can make your life hell if you don't. But Mercedes gets the people on their feet and praising Jesus, every last one of them even when she sings one of the big four. But you couldn't get your head far enough out of your ass to hear my baby."

"I know, I was wrong and I had hoped to apologize." He blurted quickly.

I shook my head. "There ain't enough apologies for the bullshit you put these kids through. Your ass is partially responsible for Hiram and Antwan's little girl being bat shit crazy. You're the reason my daughter cried. Hell the only reason your ass is standing here right now is because she kept Sam and Noah away from the theater the day you and that St. James kid did those fake ass auditions for the solo at nationals her junior year. You think either of them would have let his ass get off with calling her lazy when she works harder than anybody else in your little club."

He had the grace to blush and look admonished. "I know that she often helped out with the others learning to read the music."

"Yes, she did. The only ones who could read music when you started your little club were MeDe, Kurt, Artie, Rachel and the Hudson boy could read a drum line. Who the hell do you think taught Finn to read the rest of the sheet? Who taught Tina? When you got enough to compete, who took her time to teach the same little heifers who had tormented her how to read music, rather than just singing from ear. Even now, she is teaching Santana to play the piano so that she can get the degree she is in school for. She taught Mike and that Rutherford boy too. Puck already knew how because he'd taken guitar classes whenever Rebecah could afford them. But you knew that you didn't teach them. You knew Rachel is way too self-involved. Oh, she used that as an excuse to get Finn to spend time with her, but she didn't teach him much before he got uncomfortable and ran away. Kurt told me all about it…hell I think he told everyone who would listen all about it. Probably not you because you never listened to him or my daughter. But she helped them with other stuff too. Did you know that Mercedes, Artie and eventually Lauren tutored Brittany and Finn? They wouldn't have been able to compete at all let alone graduate if they hadn't. But you didn't realize that you golden boy was having trouble in school? You're just as bad as Rachel. Pathetically self-absorbed. I don't like you and I don't particularly want you around my kids. So here is what you are going to do. You're going to avoid all of them for the rest of the night. Rachel too, I know I saw her sneaky butt round here earlier. You can get your shit right and reach out to them through Facebook or twitter, but I'll be damned if you ruin tonight for them with your platitudes, bullshit and false remorse. If you want them to really believe that you are sorry then you can't talk about it, you need to be about it."

"How do you suggest that I show them I am sorry?" he asked.

If I hadn't heard the actual, sincere sorrow in Schuester's voice, I probably would have laughed in his face. "Look, I'm not going to lie to you. I personally think you've already burnt that bridge and pissed on the ashes. But if you want to start making amends, you'll need to begin with Kurt. He is more likely to be willing to forgive you than Mercedes will be if he isn't on your side. If you want to know how to get his forgiveness, I suggest you hit Neimans, or Barneys, or Bergdorf…someplace that sells Alexander McQueen and not knock offs either, he'd spot one in a heartbeat." I grabbed a glass of the mocktail off one of the passing trays. “Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go explain to my wife that you came up to me before I end up in the doghouse and really do end up punching you in the face."

I walked over to where Danica was engaged in a conversation with a far more down to earth than one would expect Jill Scott. When we'd hosted Ms. Scott for dinner in January, the two women had found that they had quite a bit in common. They'd become email buddies after the visit. It was great to see. Before I reached them, I was waylaid by Mills and her old college roommates. "Benton, please…please tell Nadia that your brother-in-law is not good boyfriend material."

I chuckled. "Which one? Bryant or Chris?" I thought for a second. "I don't know if I would introduce any woman I liked to either one. But Dani is pretty determined that Bryant's next wife be someone we actually like."

"Next wife…you say that like he has been married a whole bunch of times." Nadia asked apprehensively.

I had to think for a minute. "Mikayla, Denise, Ellen…or was it Helen…she didn't even last two years so I don't really remember. He didn't marry the last woman he brought to the reunion; she tried flirting with Sam and Noah so he kicked her to the curb. The last woman we met, he was dating not this Christmas but the one before. I think he dropped her after that date. Danica couldn't stand her and the dumb bunny let it be known that the feeling was mutual."

"Ooooh nooo…Even if you hate the sister you keep your mouth shut." The four women in front of me agreed.

Francesca laughed. "Both Becah and Ruth hated me when I dated Saul but we all get along fine now that I'm with Neal…and Dani and Mercedes forgave me for being a little stubborn when I was showing them apartments."

"Yeah, stubbornness." I rolled my eyes. I actually did like Francesca now that she'd had that stick removed from her ass. Hell, Neal was so good for her; I couldn't even see her sternum anymore. "Anyway, I got cornered so I haven't had a chance to get a read of the room, what has everyone been saying?"

Nadia smiled at me. She really was a beautiful woman. She stood only a little shorter than my beautiful Dani, and looking at them, they probably shared a bra cup size, but Nadia was significantly thinner. Her natural beige dress had just a hint of pink to it and if not for the shimmer and details, it would have looked like her skin. It offset her red curls nicely. "Well Joey Kramer, from Aerosmith, is here. I did one of their videos a while back. He and I were chatting and he loved them. He wants to put them in contact with Steven, see if they can't get them on as performers or mentors on an episode of ‘American Idol'…get them even more exposure."

Mills laughed happily. "That is nothing. I watched as Pink cornered Lyor Cohen…she is very determined to get them on her next album with her. But she wasn't the only one. Prince, oh my God did I mention that I shook Prince's hand?" She squeaked. "Anyway, I heard him tell Lyor that Warner owed him. I made the assumption that he was trying to get some recording time with our trio too."

Madeline laughed. "I had a great conversation with Perez Hilton. He bought like one of everything from the merch table and he wanted me to ask them if they are going to make the items available through their site. He said that he bought the last of the men's Vans and they were down to just a few hoodies left. They have completely sold out of the weirdest things. All the condoms are gone and so are the journals and the iPod holding arm bands. But they still have quite a bit of the less expensive things like the flash drives and the plastic packaging openers." Either the fans were richer here in the city than they probably were back home, a big possibility, or the buyers were the VIPs. I missed some of what she was saying and tuned back in. "He thinks that the stuff from tonight is going to end up being as much a collector's item as the original Rolling Stones or Kiss memorabilia. Plus he is getting ready to sell his place and buy something with more space and less yard. I may be adding him to my client list."

"I noticed that you and Ruth's friend Roman were chatting earlier too." Mills teased.

Nadia and Francesca looked at Madeline expectantly too. I would have left, but if Danica, Gabs and Becs knew that I was this nearby when they were talking about something like this and didn't get them the info; my ass would be on the couch for a month. Madeline blushed prettily. "He is a very handsome man. Smart…witty…but he lives in New York. His family must live nearby. He got caught up over there talking to two of his cousins." She gestured over and I saw three men who were clearly all very handsome and definitely related.

I recognized one as Lester Santos who had walked us through the security system at the kids' house. "Huh, Manoso…I never made the connection. One of his cousins owns Rangeman…the other heads the New York office, I think. Lester and another man helped us understand how to use the system at the kids' house."

Mills looked over. "None of those three were the ones who did our walk through." She said quietly. "Mack was there again though. But those three look enough alike to be brothers, forget cousins. There should not be that much pretty in one family."

"Oh please. I know you aren't talking. You married into three generations of pure beauty and straight sex appeal." Nadia teased. "Ruth Mayzer may be the one woman who can finally get you out of my head."

That was my cue to go. I had some dish for Dani, I didn't need to even think about Nadia and Ruth. Not in public anyway. By the time I got to Dani she had exchanged Jill Scott for India Arie. "I was a little surprised to get the invitation for tonight. My agent swore if I attended and didn't make a contact that made getting dressed up worth it, she would waive her fees for the month. I didn't tell her that I was so curious that I was coming anyway. I will say that I did speak with Ms. Mayzer and she is going to give your daughter and, well I guess for all intents and purposes your sons-in-law, my direct contact number. I would love to work with them. The way they fuse R&B, country, rock and soul is just gorgeous. But I am still very curious as to why I warranted such a beautiful invitation."

I smiled at her as Dani introduced us before answering the ‘Chocolate High' songstress. "They wanted to thank you. I don't know if you have heard the story of how the kids got discovered. They were on a date when they were in New York two years ago for the show choir national competition. The restaurant the concierge at their hotel recommended happened to have a band that played music for the patrons to dance to or enjoy while they ate. The three of them decided to dance while they waited on their entrée or dessert or something. While they danced, the band played ‘Ready for Love', the way the boys tell it, Mercedes started to sing and it was so deeply touching and beautiful that they couldn't help but join in. Lyor Cohen was in a shaded from view area of the restaurant and he heard their voices. He believed in them so much he convinced all six of us parents that it was a good idea to let them sign the contracts with Warner as soon as they could. The rest is history. But it all started with one of your songs."

"Wow that is deep." India smiled. "I appreciate their gratitude. But the truth is that it may have been my song, but it was their talent."

Danica smiled at her. "I like to think they were raised right." She huffed on her manicure and brushed her nails against her shoulder. We all shared a warm laugh. "But seriously, Mercedes has loved your music since she was six or seven years old. You have no idea how many times I had to hear her singing ‘Video'. Thank you for making good music that my six year old music lover could listen to. You know that a lot of your fellow singers at that time didn't." 

The singer gave us a proud smile. "You know that is one of the things I love to hear most from my fans. That it was them and they mothers or mothers and daughters…sometimes even grandmothers, all listening together. That not only could they, but that they wanted to listen together. Thank you."

The lights flashed signaling that it was time to return to our seats. I watched as the fans and VIPs alike moved quickly to follow the mandate. It did my heart good to see how much they were all loving my daughter and her husbands.

 

 

Glad You Came (The Wanted)  
Tina PoV

I could not believe that I was in New York City…at a music industry party…talking to Jamal Lyons. It was all so crazy. The worst part was that when I added in the thought that it was to celebrate Mercedes' first album release…it became totally believable. Mike and I had flown out of San Francisco the night before. We'd had a huge dinner with all the old school New Directions, the Jones, Puckerman and Evans relatives then gone back to Commune, Klaine and Bartana's house and we had a massive sleepover. When we got up Saturday morning, we all had a quick breakfast on the go and then spent the day at the spa. It was an experience like none I have ever had before. Then we had a great French lunch before we headed back to the house and were further pampered by having our hair and makeup done by professionals. I felt like I was the star. Hell, Mike and I rode in a limo and walked a red carpet. It was epically awesome.

During the VIP reception Mike and I had stuck together and gotten a chance to talk to a lot of really nice people both celebrities and background people. We had a great time and all the food was just to die for. At intermission, though, we split up. We were on a mission. We were going to reconnoiter and find out what everyone was saying about the performance. When we got into the concourse, Mike headed to the area around the merchandise kiosk to hear what the fans were saying. I headed for a cluster of young celebs and ended up in a conversation with the middle Lyons son. "Your girl is amazing. I thought Lucious was gonna come out of his chair when she did that Whitney track."

I grinned. "You should have heard her ‘Ain't No Way'…the things she can do to Aretha songs are even more amazing than what she can do with a Whitney."

"They write their own stuff though, right?" He asked.

"Yup. Other than the Buckcherry cover, it's all stuff that they wrote over the last two or three years." I told him proudly. My friends were awesome.

Jamal looked around and pitched his voice very low. "So are they really…together, together."

I giggled. "People always ask that like they have been trying to hide something. Yes. They are definitely, indubitably, completely together. They got together after our junior prom and have been going together ever since."

He nodded. "Lucious is pretty homophobic. Guess that's why he's not trying to figure out how to pull them away from Warner and get them signed to Empire."

"Wouldn't work anyway." I said honestly. "Mercedes and Sam have always valued loyalty way too much to be shady themselves. Puck is still learning on that front, but he would never lead them or try to get them to go against their morals."

"That's cool." He gave me a wicked grin. "So you planning on taking info back to your camp later on?"

I nodded. "Yeah, we've got a meeting set for after the after party…before we crash…you should come to the after party. It's being held at The Place on West Fourth Street. Mr. Manoso, I gestured to the gentleman Puck's grandmother had introduced us too earlier, is one of the head chefs over there." I felt very urban talking about it like I knew where I was going. After the after mingling, I would be getting into a car and going where it took me.

"I might do that." He smiled charmingly. "Let me give you the scoop on people's reactions." He gave me the total run down of the reactions of the people who were seated around them. "Alright, the Smiths are totally in love. If you believe the swinging rumors, then I'd say they will be trying to seduce your friends as soon as they can. But I know for a fact that those rumors are total bullshit so I'll just say that I can bet you money that they are each leaving here with a copy of the CD and some other merch. Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine and Pharrell are all betting each other that they will be the first of that Voice crew to get them to work with them. Blake Shelton is acting like a proud Papa, and Miranda isn't too far behind. My mother isn't here tonight..." a shadow covered his face, which told me that I definitely shouldn't ask where she was, "But she loved ‘SongBird', she thinks it is going to get an Oscar nom. When she says things like that, she is usually right. We all heard what Pink thinks. Missy and Timbaland think they have the perfect rapper to hook them up with for an epic single…but plenty of the producers here are saying the same thing. Among the industry big wigs, the universal buzz is that they want the solo contracts with the individual members. But you figure that Warner has that on lock?"

"Oh yeah. Well Lyor Cohen. He has their loyalty more than the label, but he says he is going to stay there until their contract runs out. So they will stick with him." I said honestly.

Jamal just nodded. "Okay…let's see, who else was I near enough to get a read on…Tyler Perry is hopeful that they will let him write a movie based on their relationship. Supposedly he is getting a copy of the CD for Oprah." My eyes were huge. "I know, right…" we shared a chuckle.

That last elusive missing puzzle piece fell into place. "You should definitely come to the after party…and without your dad. My friend Dave would love you." I kept my voice hella low, making sure that only he and I would hear what I had to say. "He would totally understand too."

His face flushed. "That's cool, but I'm involved with someone right now."

"Still you seem so cool. I know that Mercy, Sam and Puck would love to meet you." I told him with a reassuring smile. Before he could say anything further, Quinn popped up at my elbow with her roommate Taylor in tow. She didn't say a word, just touched my elbow and our eyes met. I saw the anger in her eyes so I turned to look where her eyes were directed after they left mine. "Oh, that no good son of a rotten whore and he brought the betraying bitch." I groaned. "Jamal, please excuse us we need to go and take out the trash."

Jamal smirked evilly. "Oh you are not leaving me out of drama…I never get to see drama from the outside looking in."

I wasn't waiting to convince him, lest we lose sight of St. Jackass and Batshit Crazy Berry. Somehow we picked up Lauren and Finn along the way. We managed to ‘surround' them even while making it look like we were simply another small little enclave of party goers. "You need to leave and you need to leave now." I said without preamble.

Rachel turned to me and opened her mouth. Lauren cut her off. "Hell to the no. We are done with the cat and mouse bull shit. You should have known better than to bring your ass into this party. Get your flat chested behind gone."

"I paid my money just like everyone here. I have just as much right to be here as anyone else." Rachel defended.

St. Jackass pulled his invitation from his pocket. "I was invited. I thought that after all that happened your junior and senior years, if Puck or Sam or Mercedes wanted to rub my face in their success, I owed it to them to come and allow them to do so. And also in my defense, I only came over here to talk her into leaving. Shelby helped me a lot very recently and I believe that it was Mercedes' father that was there with her. I didn't want Rachel making a scene and ruining her night."

The rest of us all looked at him like he had grown a second head…or a first heart. "Alright, St. Jackoff…you can stay so Puck or Sam can have the pleasure of pointing out to you that Mercedes can sing rings around Rachel and has always and will always be the bigger star." Quinn said reasonably.

But, of course, Rachel couldn't let that go unchallenged. "Of course Mercedes is the ‘bigger' star, she is at least twice as wide as my much more svelte, dancer's form."

Jamal laughed. "That only matters to the fashion industry. In the real world, men like chicks with breasts and ass…you don't have either."

Rachel looked him up and down then she scoffed at his very existence. "Look, I don't know who you are, but this really has nothing to do with you."

Taylor stopped and looked at Jamal then back at Rachel then turned to Quinn. "I thought you said that one of her fathers was black. How does she grown up in the house of a black man anywhere from forty to sixty…heck a black man of any age… and not know who the hell he is? My grandfather could tell you who he is."

"Give it another minute and you'll realize, like the rest of us have come to understand, that Rachel only remembers Antwan's culture when it is convenient for her." Lauren laughed. "The rest of the time she only acknowledges the Jewish side. But since she is actually, genetically Jewish…I'd like to think that she gets at least a little of the intelligence that is supposedly prevalent among the Jewish people…and leave without making me put her out."

"As I said, I paid for my ticket. It is my entre into this event. I have no reason to leave before the end of the concert." Rachel said self-righteously.

"Finn, please text Burt and have him text Antwan and Hiram. Tell them to come get their girl, before I introduce her to the Rangemen and have her surreptitiously tossed out on her svelte little rear." I said quietly. "Rachel. I used to respect your talent and drive. I used to listen to Schue when he told us that we should emulate you, but you aren't worthy of my respect. Not because of your mental defect…but because you constantly let it get the better of you. Instead of using your strength to excel despite your condition, you are using every ounce of your strength to revel in the insanity which will ultimately be your downfall. It's sad. Brittany told you that day in the theatre, you could have been worth so much more than you ever will be now. You have burned every bridge in your life and you won't even acknowledge that it was you who struck the fucking match."

Rachel looked aghast. She had never paid me any attention in high school. That was fine. I had no need nor any desire for attention from her. It wasn't worth the price. We were joined by her fathers just in time for them to hear my final admonition. "She is right Rachel. Go home. We'll come and see you and talk about this tomorrow." Hiram's voice was shaking with rage. His hands we balled into fists and to be honest it looked like he was trying not to reach out and throttle his daughter.

Rachel drew herself up to her full ‘height'. "Dad, Daddy…I bought my ticket. I haven't gone anywhere near Mercedes or Sam or Puck. I was hoping to speak with the head of Empire to advance my own career goals."

Taylor and Jamal both started to chuckle. But it was Antwan who spoke. "So you thought that you would get his son to introduce you? You'd really use that young man like that?"

"She would have had to known who I was to have attempted to use me to get to Lucious." Jamal laughed.

Rachel looked shocked and appalled. "You…You…they didn't say…"

"How did you not recognize Jamal Lyons?" Hiram looked shocked himself. "He has been on the cover of several of your father's magazines with his father and brothers. He was just on the December issue of Essence."

"Oh," Rachel said defensively. "I don't listen to urban music, so I don't read Daddy's Essence…I read his Clutch though."

Taylor looked her up and down. Rachel was wearing a garish, floral print, sleeveless, A-line, tea length monstrosity of a cocktail dress. She had found a pair of two inch heels that were very close to the same lurid shade of pink and her ears, neck, and wrists all glittered with paste jewelry. "Wow…you sure didn't take any of the advice in Clutch. That dress is…I mean did you actually think you looked good in that?"

"It is Oscar de la Renta." She defended staunchly.

Every one of us rolled our eyes. "Designer ugly is still ugly." Quinn said knowledgably. "Also, please in the future note that when you buy designer off the rack, you should always have it tailored. And when it comes to cocktail jewelry, less is always more. One statement piece to offset the real, not a whole set of poor imitations."

Had she been a different person, the crestfallen look that crossed her face would have elicited some sympathy from me, but I had been fooled by her before. Apparently Jamal knew her type too. "Look, Ms…"

"Berry." I supplied helpfully.

Jamal nodded his thanks. "Look, Ms. Berry, you should go ahead and go home as your fathers have suggested. I do not believe that you would find a welcoming home at Empire. We are an urban music label. My father was and is an urban music star. Besides, and no offense to you Mr. and Mr. Berry, but Lucious is rather aggressively homophobic and has a problem with interracial relationships. If he knew that she had two fathers and that one is white and the other black…" he trailed off embarrassingly. "It is not a feeling that is shared by myself or my brothers…or our mother…but that is how Lucious feels. Not to mention that your daughter's personality is extremely off putting. I only spoke to her for a moment and listened the rest of the time, and I have to say that I truly admire the restraint of Tina and her friends. Lucious would find it impossible to exercise the same. In fact I'm finding it very difficult."

"Oh don't feel bad. I've been wanting to punch her in the throat for at least three years." Lauren smirked evilly at Rachel.

"Before or after you lured away my boyfriend." Rachel said smugly.

Finn rolled his eyes. "You do realize that we weren't together when Lauren and I started dating. We had broken up." He said slowly in a manner most people usually reserved for talking to him. "Rachel…Look, you are causing a scene. Please just leave. There are far too many people here that you do not want to alienate. I mean, Barbra Streisand is here. Do you really want her to have a face to put with the name on the letter she sent to Santana?"

It was certainly easy to see that Rachel was finally swayed. She did not want to meet her idol while she was attending an event for her main rival, though it would only be fair to point out that Mercedes was only a rival in Rachel's own mind. The truth was that Mercedes had far surpassed Rachel, and were the chocolate diva a different kind of person, she would have already crushed Rachel under her stiletto. I used my phone to take a quick picture of Rachel and her very over done look. I sent it to Santana and Blaine. The reason I sent it to Santana was that the Latina would really enjoy picking apart Rachel's attempt at fashion and I sent it to Blaine because his father was one of the points of contact with Rangeman and he could make sure that the security firm knew that Rachel was not to be allowed back into the event.

I turned to Jamal and apologized. "I'm sorry that you had to witness that. Rachel was our friend but she finds it impossible to acknowledge that we are just as talented and just as driven and just as capable of success as she is. Her pathological need to be popular and to be the next Barbra stands in the way of the desire of those around her for her to be a decent human being."

"Please that was positively civil. I've seen worse when my brothers and I try to have dinner together." Jamal assured us. "But she was for real…she had no clue who I was, how was she gonna recognize Lucious?"

"Oh, Rachel Berry doesn't have to recognize anyone else…everyone recognizes Rachel Berry…didn't you know." Lauren snarked. "Sorry that was kind of rude. She just really pisses me off." Elle watched as Hiram and Antwan Berry crossed over to speak with one of the Rangemen themselves. They were such good people. "I don't understand her; she was raised by two good, honorable people. Even her biological mother is pretty awesome…but Rachel goes out of her way to be a backstabbing biotch."

"She's gone. Let's forget about her and just have fun." Finn reasoned. "Tina, Quinn thank you guys for coming and visiting me when I was…well according to Sam I was napping."

I punched him in the shoulder. "Why are you thanking us? You'd have done the same for any of us." I hugged him tightly. "Next time…well hell I don't even know what to say…just don't let there be a next time." I quickly fanned my face. There was no way I was going to let tears ruin my makeup.

"You guys will have to excuse Tina…she has the biggest heart of all of us, which means she cries really, really easily." Quinn said dryly, which made me laugh and forestalled the urge to cry.

"Hey you cry too." Lauren defended me. "I have the pictures to prove it Lucy." The banter continued, greatly amusing a quietly chatting Taylor and Jamal, until the lights dimmed and came back up indicating that intermission had come to an end.

You Oughta Know (Alanis Morissette)  
Emma PoV

I find it truly exhilarating to know that I saw the star in Mercedes before anyone else. Before Sue, before Shelby…and I'm not sure that Will even now acknowledges that she is going to be completely mega-famous. I firmly believe that the best revenge is living well. So I decided that I would show Will exactly how well I was doing without his lying, cheating, non-money paying back, self. First I was going to show him that I could easily handle a city like New York, when I'd been here to help him move, we'd barely gone anywhere, he claimed it was out of the need to shelter me from things that could cause me to have ‘an episode’…but if the condition of that apartment wasn't enough to send me running screaming there was no way that Central Park was going to do so. I believe that he was already distancing himself from our relationship even then. He was just too much of a coward to tell me the truth.

However, making William Schuester seethe with the knowledge that I could attract a man ten times better than him wasn't my primary purpose for attending the Necessity for Existence drop party. I was there for my kids. And my kids knew it and appreciated it. I could tell because when Dr. Harmon and I entered the concourse, one of the large men in black introduced himself to me as Hal. "Ms. Jones had the caterer prepare you a special plate of the hor d'oeurves. They weren't touched other than to remove them from the preparation method and place them on the covered dish. She said that you had a bit of a problem with publically prepared food, so she wanted to ensure that you were taken care of within what would work for you. The bar captain has it for you behind the back bar."

"Thank you, Hal. Is…is that short for anything?" I asked kindly. I had to admit, I was just trying to keep the conversation going, I wanted to talk to him forever. Hal was a very attractive man. He was at least six foot six inches tall, very broad and very muscular. His blonde hair was short and cut into a military style.

"Yes ma'am…but I'd rather not say what. I'm named after my father and well…he wasn't a very nice man." Hal blushed a little. "There will be a covered tray of desserts for you at the intermission as well."

I felt my own face flush in response. I was not used to feeling the way I felt in that moment. He had to return to his station and Dr. Harmon and I moved further into the room. "Did I just witness the beginnings of a love connection?" My therapist teased.

"I…I'm really not sure. I have loved other men, or at least I thought that I was in love with Will and I was engaged twice before him. But…" I began.

Dr. Harmon was the best therapist I had ever had. He knew when to prod and he knew when to allow me to gather my thoughts and find my voice again in my own time. He gave me a long moment then prodded gently. "But…"

"I had what I can only term as a visceral reaction to speaking with him…with Hal. I wanted to stand there and just look at him…forever." I whispered.

"And you have never felt like that before?" he asked.

"No…I…" I took a deep breath. "I imagined what he would look like naked. I imagined what he would look like naked, with me."

Dr. Harmon looked at me as if he were trying to read my mind. Sometimes I worried that he really could. "Emma, this could be a very big breakthrough for you. You've said in session that you found it very difficult to even kiss your fiancés, any of them. Now you are actively fantasizing about someone. That is huge." He looked thoughtful. "He looked like he was former military. Military usually means that they have been trained to create a neat and clean environment."

"That would be lovely. Will and Ken were both horribly messy. I was constantly cleaning up after them." I finally admitted out loud.

"Which would have only hindered you from making any real progress. Your condition would have been constantly irritated in an environment shared with someone who couldn't be counted upon to do their share of maintaining the environment to even your lowest level of comfort. You could not have gotten better. Just as you were unable to make progress with your parents constantly helping you keep everything to your highest standards." I was reminded of what he said during my initial consultation. ‘We are never going to completely cure you. You don't have a disease. What you have is a mental condition that we can hopefully ameliorate your symptoms to the point of moderation. We will get you to the point that you can live a normal life…maybe even to the point of being able to have and rear a child.' That was my dream. That was why I had picked Dr. Harmon. I didn't need to be cured, I just needed to be able to have the one thing I'd always dreamed of, the one thing I'd always been told that I would never be able to have.

I forced myself back to the night at hand. For the most part, the invitees who weren't walking the red carpet…I had gotten to walk a red carpet…they got there quite a bit earlier than we did. When we walked in, chatting and I must assume looking quite intimate. We made a short circuit of the room greeting some very delightful people who were seemingly unaffected by their celebrity status. I had a positively lovely conversation with James Brolin. He had heard about Santana from his wife when she'd written the letter to the trades two years before. He hoped to meet the brash young lady that Barbra felt had the chutzpah to go very far in the industry. I explained to him that Santana was getting experience in the industry acting as one of KAMA's background singers…so he should be able to meet her during the post-concert mixing. I also had a nice conversation with a young lady from Britain named Cher. Despite her youth she was still very, very polite. I supposed it had something to do with being raised in a nation known for its manners. I also had a wonderful conversation with a gentleman named Sydney Greene, a Broadway producer. 

The reception blew by and before I knew it, we were being shown to our seats in the auditorium. VIPs were allowed in first and we were all seated in the rows nearest the stage. Mercedes, Noah and Sam's families and the other New Direction kids were seated in the front most rows then their mentors, which I was pleased to be included among. I was also a little gratified to note that Will was not. Behind the mentors which did include the man who set this all in motion and his staff, were the celebrity VIPs. The exceptions being Jill Scott, the gentleman from Linkin Park and the country singers, Blake Shelton and Miranda Lambert. I even liked the young man they had selected to act as their opening act.

The music was amazing, but what truly had me transfixed was the ability they three of them, their whole band really, to connect with their audience. They made us feel each and every emotion they were describing with song; the bright, youthful defiance of ‘Hell to the No', the angst and determination of ‘The Fighter', the dawning hope of ‘Ooh Child', the seduction of both ‘Pillow Talk' and ‘Slow Hand'. It was quite remarkable. However the highlight of the evening had to be the surprise performance of Dolly Parton's most famous song, made iconic by Whitney Houston. ‘I Will Always Love You' had never sounded as poignant, as deeply emotional, as both desolate and awe inspiring as it did that night. Mercedes voice was impeccable and while she didn't do it exactly the same as the original or its more famous cover, she made it her own…an almost impossible feat.

As we all adjourned back to the concourse area for the intermission, there was a run on the merchandise table. Dr. Harmon bought three copies of their CD, one for himself, one for his wife and a final one for his daughter. I offered to get the kids to autograph them all, but he only asked that Violet's be signed. In a gesture of gratitude I purchased his wife one of the official KAMA journals. It was a lovely shade of purple and while they called it a song journal, it would fit easily into a purse or pocket and had enough pages to last quite a while. I noticed that Will had made his way over to Mercedes' father. I turned my attention far, far away. If Benton Jones ‘took Schue to the carpet' I wanted to be able to say I hadn't seen a thing. He would have easily deserved anything the bigger man dished out. Perhaps I should have paid a bit more attention to their interaction, because as soon as we turned back from retrieving my special dessert plate as well as a glass of scotch for Dr. Harmon and a purple haze martini for me from the bar captain, Will Schuester popped up in front of us. "Hello Emma, you look amazing. I wanted to apologize to you. I…have realized…Excuse me, who are you?" he stopped mid-sentence to ask Dr. Harmon when he noticed that he wasn't moving away.

"I happen to be Dr. Ben Harmon but tonight, it is more important that I am Emma's date." He said with a superior grin.

William looked at me as if I had betrayed him. "Emma, I…I was hoping to apologize for the way we ended things."

I rolled my eyes. "You mean the way that I ended things, after you were too weak, willed and lily livered to do so before you started sleeping with April Rhodes. I should have realized that you were completely pathetic when it came to women…it would have been better if we had remained friends. You were mentally unfaithful even before you found the, the, the balls to be physically unfaithful. I can do so much better than you."

He looked shocked. I felt it. But it felt so good to say what I was feeling that whole time. However, Will Schuester is nothing if not predictable. "You can do better…like who…this guy?"

I rolled my eyes. "He is a doctor. He is tall. He is handsome, he has four degrees and excels in his field. Yes, he is better than you. Heck, most of the men in this room are better than you. They don't use women and then toss them aside. They don't borrow money and never repay it."

I swear, standing next to the bar, I should have anticipated that she would show up. I doubted that she even had blood anymore, probably just red, million proof liquor flowed through her veins. "Wait, Willie, if Little Orphan Emma lent you the money to get set up here…what happened to the advance I gave you to move to do my show?" April actually looked pretty good, not nearly as pickled as usual. "I gave you ten grand just for moving expenses."

"Then what the hell did he need my sixty five hundred dollars for?" I gasped. Shocked at my own language, but the expletive was certainly deserved.

William looked embarrassed. "Maybe we can talk about this later…in private." He looked around seeing all the people, many of who were trying very hard not to be seen listening to the nearby drama.

I didn't know April Rhodes very well…but I knew her well enough to know that if you wanted her silence you had to buy it. And William Schuester didn't have enough money to keep her quiet when she didn't want to be. "No. we can talk about this now and we can talk about this here. You owe Lil Miss Guidance roughly seven Gs and you owe me ten." Will started to object. "Oh no Li'l Willie…you don't get to claim that you don't owe me my money. You may not be too good at reading contracts, but my lawyers are fan-fucking-tastic at writing them. The only way you wouldn't have been responsible for returning the ten grand would be if the play had shown long enough to recoup the original expenses. It didn't…I have said anything because hey, you were paying me in other ways, but you aren't that good between the sheets. Not to mention, fucking with me is fine, but Emma is good people. She genuinely cares about those kids you claim to love so much. When I was wrecking them by teaching them to be like me…who do you think called me on it…you? Please." She scoffed. "So what's the deal Willie? You in with the curly hair mafia?"

"I…I owed Terry quite a bit in alimony." He said quietly.

April and I exchanged a long look. "She faked a pregnancy and the judge made you pay alimony…what kind of lawyer did you have."

"I didn't want to create a conflict of interest since I taught Rachel, so I didn't go to her dad's firm."

"The only other firm in town that does divorces is that guy that advertises late at night on channel three." I laughed. "You are a…you're a…"

"You're an idiot." April said decisively. "And you're a broke idiot. I'll come by your place Tuesday with the paperwork to send Emma two hundred and fifty buckaroos every time you get paid and me three fifty. There will be some interest involved in each loan. We'll keep things nice and simple and keep it at ten percent. You should have me and Sweet Little Emma paid off in three years…if you don't miss a payment that is."

"I won't be able to pay my rent…or eat if I have to give the two of you six hundred dollars every month." Will whisper shouted.

"Oh, poor L'il Willie. First of all…you aren't giving us the money, that ship has sailed…no, we're going to garnish your wages. And second of all…I'd give you a quarter to call someone who cares, but don't you already owe me enough money." She said snarkily.

Will took a deep, centering, breath. "Look. I will pay you back. I'll sign the papers. I just. I wanted to apologize. I want to make things right with you, and make things right with the kids. Emma, you were right. I…I played favorites. I wasn't fair in how I treated the kids. I just want a chance to let them know that I'm sorry for not being the teacher they needed."

I looked over at Dr. Harmon. He was very good at reading people. I wanted to know if he believed that Will was sincere. Dr. Harmon was staring at Will as if he were a bug. I took that to mean that he wasn't as sincere as he wanted us to believe. "Why now Will?" I heard myself ask before I had even realized that I opened my mouth.

It wasn't Will who answered. "He has realized that he will not be successful on Broadway. Not in the play he is currently doing. That gives him two options either he will need to return to teaching. It is what he is trained to do. He's held a teaching position for quite a time. However, he won't want to go back to Lima, it would be returning with his tail between his legs. No, he would want to stay here. There are many performing arts schools where a former Broadway star would be a very valued commodity. Alternately he would need to audition and get a supporting or lead part in another play. Either way he cannot afford to be blackballed because a new, very popular, group like KAMA, who he taught for two years, speak up against him." Dr. Harmon theorized.

I understood exactly where he was going with that train of thought. "So basically, the only reason he even came tonight was because someone has informed him that he isn't the favored teacher, the mentor, that he believed he was. He wants to make sure that Mercedes, Sam and Noah do not cause him to lose face amongst his new peers."

"No…he wants to make sure that it doesn't get back to the producers that people they would love to curry favor with hate Schue's guts." April pontificated. 

"The kids don't hate me?" Will staunchly defended.

I looked at him thoughtfully. "Some of them don't and never will, but Sam, Puck, Santana…those three can, probably do and if they do…will make your life miserable."

"What are you talking about those three have no reason to hate me. All the complaints I have heard never had anything to do with them."

"No…you alienated and marginalized Mercedes, Artie, and Kurt. Those three will forgive you. That's who they are. Mercedes will take the longest, not because of how you hurt her, but because of how you hurt Kurt. But like I said they will forgive you. Sam and Puck not so much…Santana would probably actively black ball you and never look back. You should have realized long ago William, people forgive pretty easily for slights against them…it's when you hurt someone they love that they get irreparably angry."

Before Will could say anything, Hal appeared at my elbow. "Is there anything you need Ms. Pillsbury?" His voice was very solicitous and kind and the deep, husky rasp did things to me that were very, very unsanitary but very exciting.

I shook my head as I tried to find my voice. April was giving me a very appraising look. "You are a big boy aren't you?" she teased him. "There isn't a problem. Li'l Willie was just about to walk away and go about his business."

The look I sent her was grateful. The look Hal sent William was not pleasant at all. "Mr. Schuester, while, yes you are on the VIP list, you are also on Mr. Puckerman and Ms. Lopez list of people who should they come and cause any sort of scene, they are to be thrown out on their," he paused and looked at me and April… "I'm not going to say the word because there are ladies present, but I believe that you can glean the meaning from the context clues."

I rather enjoyed watching him slink off with his tail between his legs. I turned to Hal with my thanks. "I appreciate that."

"It was nothing. Bomber's ex gives off the same vibes. I figured he would hassle someone tonight. I don't understand why he would choose to be a butthead to the prettiest lady here though." He blushed so hard his ears turned red. That was delightful.

"I suppose for the same reason as ‘Bomber's' ex." I postulated and wondered for a moment who ‘Bomber’ was. His tone of voice conveyed a certain level of affection, perhaps a very good friend or even a sister. "Somehow cheating men always find that they love the woman they hurt after the damage is done." I noticed that my doctor looked a little uncomfortable. That made me wonder what had necessitated the Harmon family's move from Boston to the far smaller city of Dayton.

"That was your ex…well he was even more of a fool than Ms. Lopez said if he let you go." Hal blurted. He looked abashed and apologized quickly.

Dr. Harmon, however, was not about to let what he saw as my forward momentum be halted. "Hal, it is fine to flirt with Emma. We are here simply as friends. My wife and daughter are waiting on me back in my hotel room. She didn't want to come unaccompanied lest William Schuester become more of an annoyance than he just was."

Hal smiled shyly. "Were you going to attend the after party?" He asked shyly. "Ranger said that any of us who wanted to go could. I…I would like, very much to dance with you."

I blushed harder than I ever had before. "I would like that too. I was going to return to my hotel after this, but Shelby and Shannon both said that I would disappoint Mercedes, Noah and Sam if I did."

"I would be very disappointed too." He said quickly. "I'd better get back to work, but please save me a dance." He said with a blindingly beautiful smile.

"Wow." I murmured.

"Wow is right. I thought the two of you were going to spontaneously combust right there. That was adorable. Emma…I am sorry. I really didn't realize that you and Will were still together until the night that he called you when I was there. He told me that you hadn't wanted the mess involved with a long distance relationship." She sounded very contrite. "I mean, I don't mind being the other woman when the main chick is a bitch, but I actually mostly like you."

"I accept your, interesting, apology." I told her honestly. I was over William, "I just want him to pay me back. Then I want nothing else to do with that man."

"I feel the same way. Thanks to him I have to find another sugar daddy. I'm pushing forty…there are younger gold diggers out there. My only redeeming grace is that I'm low maintenance in comparison." She chuckled. 

I looked around the room. "It seems like you should be able to find someone here."

April threw me an impish smile. “I've got three on the hook now. Bryant Jones, the esteemed congressman in the great-ish state of New Jersey , Victor French and Sydney Greene…two Broadway producer. Sydney is only fifty-nine and he is trying to produce a revival of Funny Girl. French is seventy-six, has his fingers in the pots of three currently running shows and his eyesight isn’t what it could be, he said I didn’t look a day over twenty-five. Bryant has two strikes against him though. He lives all the way in Newark and he is Mercedes' uncle. I like the kid so I'd hate to take advantage of her family like that. Yeah, I think if I can land Greene or Frenchy, I'll toss Bryant back."

I wasn't sure what to say to that. Dr. Harmon, however, simply smiled and told her; "It is good that you have your standards."

"Oh yeah, plus too Puck's new aunt’s bestie was talking to him, she is ten years younger and has breasts bigger than my head. I can't compete with that." She said honestly. "White guy might still pick me, but a black guy is gonna be all over those boobs…hell I was kind of tempted."

All three of us shared a laugh. It was kind of nice for some reason. Perhaps the main reason that I had had issues with April in the past were all due to Will's playing us against each other in a mild way. I wonder if Holly Holiday was likable as well. I didn't have much time to contemplate that as the lights flickered signaling that it was time for us to return to our seats. We moved quickly to our seats, not wanting to miss a moment.

 

Something to be Proud of (Montgomery Gentry)  
Lyor Cohen PoV

Everything about that evening was completely different from what one would have expected of a new musical group' debut album drop party especially one with a bit of a rick edge to their music. Mercedes had said that the vibe she wanted to create was similar to a Victorian era musicale or a more modern cocktail party, with musical entertainment. She did just that. People were conversing across class, ethnic, age and economic lines. I saw school teachers conversing with actors, dentists with musicians, a fetish model with a congressman…it was amazing how many diverse groups were unified in that concert. They were talking about the cool look of the venue. They discussed the wonderful food, the cool signature cocktails and how nice it was that the passed drinks were non-alcoholic to keep down on underage drinking. All around, it was a very well planned event. By the end of the intermission, the only merchandise left on the kiosk were some of the lesser items, about twenty-five to thirty flash drive and fifty plastic packaging ‘razors' all of which were emblazoned with the group's distinctive logo. My staff had done a good job helping them develop their brand, but they were quickly getting too big for Deborah, Anika and Christophe to be able to lead while still getting the rest of their duties done.

Like proud parents, we had taught them enough to send them out of the nest. After a fashion. I wasn't willing to give them over to just anyone. That being said I'd spent the intermission speaking with the five booking agents that I had culled from amongst my contacts. My criteria was simple. I wanted someone reasonably young, hungry, honest, loyal and hardworking. They would need to be able to understand the type of crowd following we were trying to cultivate for KAMA. They would be the group that even when their lyrics were sexual or sensual, a teenager wouldn't be so embarrassed if it came on in the car that they would immediately change it. They would be the group who, even if the kid was embarrassed enough to change the station, their parent would change it back. My ultimate goal was that despite KAMA's unexpectedly swift rise to prominence, they wouldn't go the way of most overnight sensations. I needed to find them the right agent and manager combination to make sure that they kept rising higher and higher. Hopefully one of these candidates would be the right fit.

The first of them was Myra Grissom. She was twenty eight, never married and she had no children. Ms. Grissom had a degree in political science from SUNY. After graduation, she had gone to work in the development department of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, but five years ago, she had started working as a booking agent for a friend's band and found that she had a real talent for it. Myra started doing bookings full time. Her friend's band had since dissolved, but rather than return full time to the world of non-profit, she was looking to expand her regency and find enough booking agent positions that would allow her to ‘quit her day job' as it were.

Jeremy Nyland was a transplant from Minnesota. He'd graduated first in his class at the University of Minnesota and then in the top ten percent of his MBA class at NYU's Stern School of Business…not too shabby. He made the decision to take a gap year before going on to law school. He'd started booking gigs for his boyfriend to fill his time. The gap year ended three years ago. He still hadn't gone to law school. He was currently booking for six or seven local bands that spanned every genre one could think of. I liked him. He reminded me of myself back in the day.

Brantley Clayton was, he was a hustler. He'd started a venue booker but hadn't liked the money the club was offering. He'd hooked up with a small time hip hop artist that had eventually been signed by Empire. Artists don't have the option of using outside vendors or agents or managers at Empire. When you are signed by Lucious Lyons you become his and you only use his people. Brantley had used the money he made off the guy before he ditched him to get degrees in entertainment management from University of Phoenix and in Public Relations from Full Sail University. He might not have had the top tier education of the others, but he was only twenty four and he had more experience than anyone else on the docket. Plus it seemed as if he was loyal to his artist, even though the artist wasn't as loyal in return. There was something to be said for loyalty.

The other female in the group was also the only person of Hispanic descent among the possibilities. Maria Cerozie was trained as an artist and a dancer. However, when she blew out her knee to the point that she needed orthoscopic surgery, she had to give up dance. That had led her to the fabulous world of music agentry. She had started in dance but branched out to music within the last two years. She was not my favorite candidate. She was the granddaughter of Mexican immigrants. Having spoken to her I realized that she was a mix of the sanest parts of Mercedes' blonde dancing friend who's conversations were; according to Anika and Christophe, destined to give you a migraine until a week or two later where something happened that made what she'd said make perfect sense; and meanest parts of the group's fiery Puerto Rican friend turned background singer. I had a feeling that hiring Maria would prove to be akin to tossing water on a grease fire.

The final contender was Kyle Flaherty. He was the most affable of all the choices. He had the right industry experience that he could have been one of the manager candidates, but he said that he was happy booking. He'd done it while working as an A&R guy for a small label until the label execs decide that his moonlighting was a conflict of interest and rather than paying him more so he wouldn't feel the need to have a second job…they had fired him. Their loss could turn out to be KAMA's gain. My only worry was that he was at the upper end of the age spectrum at thirty-one and he was married. That could prove to be a hindrance in his field. Or his career could prove to be a hindrance to his marriage.

We discussed what they felt about the concert so far. They were all very enchanted by the vocals. Felt that the songwriting would improve as they matured and touched on deeper subjects, though their love songs were most of the way there already. Maria pointed out that having so many of their friends involved in their band could be a bad thing. But Brantley put that in better context. "Why? Do you think Aerosmith and the Rolling Stones would still be together after all this time if they weren't friends? Working with your friends when you all share similar goals can provide inspiration and grounding at the same time. Besides, the chemistry, for lack of a better term, that we saw among all the performers on the stage, the singers, the background vocalists, the backup dancers, the musicians…that can take years to find. Their friends are a part of why it works."

"Well, with the quality of their live vocals and their very impressive stage presence, they will be easy to keep booked. The problem will be working engagements around their school schedules. Are they really that determined to get their degrees?" Jeremy asked quietly.

I pointed to one of the few men in attendance who could easily have been mistaken for one of the security men, "that is Mercedes' father. Why don't you go and ask him if the kids can quit school." I joked.

"Yeah, never mind." He very quickly recanted. "Maybe it will be a good thing, I mean, always leave them wanting more, right?"

Myra looked at him with a grin. "I don't blame you. I mean, you are not really a small guy, but her dad looks like he could bench press you." She turned to me and asked a very pertinent question. "How involved will the family be? The kids are fairly young, and while your staff has said that they are savvy and have their heads on straight, you have to assume that there will be significant parental involvement."

"You are not going to have to deal with the next Matthew Knowles. Their parents are involved in an advisory manner only. If the kids have trouble making a decision, they call a war counsel of their peers and parents. They actually only have two friends in their band, but they live with a total of five other friends and will skype in the others who are at other colleges around the country. Then before they come back to us, they run things by their parents, and the other adults in their world. It is almost as if they have their entourage but they are determined and their parents are determined that they are the ones running their careers and plotting the course of their futures." I answered honestly. "That being said, if they give their word it is golden. They gave their parents their word that they would finish college. So they will finish college."

"So, we'd be booking all their engagements during summers, spring break or weekends as long as we stay in New York." Kyle spoke up.

I looked thoughtful. "They haven't mentioned weekends. I do know that they utilized their weekends for their school work, their songwriting and their recording."

"That would really limit our take home." He said quietly.

I looked at him and decided to share something that we'd been planning on holding in the back pocket until a decision had been reached. "If you've done your research, then you will understand that Sam is very, very uncomfortable with their agents and employees working solely on commission. They are planning to have both their booking agent and manager as salaried positions with a base salary of a hundred thousand a year and for the booking agent an added commission of three and a half percent for full concert engagements, five percent for festival engagements and seven percent for television appearances."

"That is a far lower percent than usual for a brand new band." Maria pointed out.

I smirked. "Part of the contract I have with Sam is that I paid his tuition at Columbia. He was determined that he would pay me back. I thought I would be really kind and just ask for one percent of his songwriting credits. He has already paid me back for two years of tuition off just the anticipated proceeds for this quarter for ‘The Fighter'. I don't believe that you will find the usual need to have an inflated percentage at the beginning, doesn't apply here."

All five of them seemed to finally understand that they were not dealing with the traditional new group on the scene. The exposure that Sam and Puck had gotten modeling on top of Mercedes role in the movie and the popularity of their singles and videos so far had launched them far further into the strata of the industry than we could have anticipated. It would be very hard to keep them there. So it was desperately important that we get the right combination of people to act as their support team. The lights signaled that it was time to return to our seats. So we headed back in. I allowed Gina, the intern, to take my previous seat so that I could sit among the prospective managers and agents and listen to their reactions to the second half of the evening.

 

Living Your Dreams (Raini Rodriguez)  
Sam PoV

I have no idea why it kept happening the way it did, but the simple truth was that whenever we're performing, all three of us get so fucking horny we have to take care of it as soon as we get off the stage. It didn't happen when we were performing as a part of the New Directions, but Halloween, the soundtrack drop party, the movie premiere…every single time. Our own drop party was no different. The raucous, thunderous applause followed us off the stage as we went back to our green room. I could barely consider the thought that I hoped Mercedes had planned on doing something different with her lips, before Puck and I were kissing the hell out of her. We were hot, sweaty, delirious and ecstatic. None of us were thinking about anything but connecting physically. Noah and I managed to get each other naked to the waist and Mercy out of her jumpsuit and bra…but all her shapewear had us stymied. But Mercedes wasn't about to let anything stop her. Her nimble little fingers had both of our pants open and our cocks out before we could even try to think of a plan to get her out of the three layers of lycra.

The feeling of her soft lips against my cock was indescribable. The sight of her doing the same to Puck was awe-inspiring. Mercy licked and sucked and stroked my dick, even taking a long moment to lick and play with my balls, then she turned and treated Puck to the same treatment. When we were both nearing the point of no return, she mooshed our heads together and sucked them both into the wet, warm cavern of her mouth. We were already overly excited, and that did us in. With a blasphemous shout I came my fingers clenching and tightening on Noah's as we fought to maintain enough control that we didn't mess up her hair, or hurt her in any way. Unfortunately, she couldn't swallow and neither could we. There was some contention as to whether or not it really was bad for our vocal cords, but we figured it was better safe than sorry, so no swallowing for any of us starting two or three days before we had to perform. Thankfully there was a water station in the room with cups in case we didn't want to drink the Aquafina straight from the bottle.

After she disposed of the physical evidence of our desire and love for her, Noah and I set about repaying the favor. We kissed her breathless again before gently nibbling our way down to her magnificent, sensitive nipples. It was out turn to use our mouths to bring her pleasure. Granted we also had to spread her pretty, thick thighs and press our fingers against her pussy until her cries of completion bounced off the walls of the dressing room. We cleaned up. While Puck and I had made sure that there were condoms in the makeup kit, Mercedes had included three bottles of mouth wash and a large container of baby wipes. As great as making love to our woman's mouth and titties had felt, that's about how good cleaning all the sweat off of our bodies felt.

Our beautiful woman thought of everything. She had her spray deodorant and she had some for us too. After we wiped down and sprayed down, Puck and I threw on our third pair of pants for the evening. He was in a pair of very well fitting Vince black leather moto jogging pants and I was wearing a pair of Givenchy moto jeans with leather insets. I got to wear an Avatar shirt. I felt awesome as I pulled back on my black timberland boots. Puck had gone with a simple teal or aqua V-neck, ‘smedium' tee shirt and his tech boots. As always Mercedes took longer to get ready and that was without having to get as dressed as she had before the first half of the concert. She freshened up her makeup, going for a bronze-reddish color lipstick and just touching up the rest. Her burgundy bra with its thin straps had been replaced by the gunmetal gray satin and metallic embroidered bra that matched the panties she'd donned when getting dressed for the evening. The bra was saved for this part of the night because she would be doing more dancing in the second half of the show than she had during the first. She pulled on the Ohne Titel resort shorts which were zebra print on the front panel and solid black on the sides and ass. They had a side zipper and watching her contort her body to get it zipped had me half hard all over again. Mercy’s top was by the same designer, but it was where her teal came into play. The shirt was a sweeping fringe cropped knit sleeveless tank with a high boat neck. The teal sweeping fringe was in front of a field of white from under her breasts to the hem, but the top of the front of the shirt was black. The shirts back was wide black, teal and white bands of material. It was a very Mercy shirt.

Her shoes were something of a surprise. She had picked a pair of basic black leather strappy sandals that only had a three and a half inch heel. Mercy slipped her feet into them and we helped her with the zippers on the back of the heels. The stage manager gave us the five minute notification so Mercy did a quick hair check and groaned. What happened next was the fastest earring change I had ever, in my entire life seen, she took off the long spear looking earrings and put on a pair of big round, hoopy ones. Satisfied she sprayed her face then mine and Puck's with the ‘stage spray' that was translucent and not colored so we could all use the same stuff.

We opened the door and saw that we the last to be ready. Santana and Xena were in another romper. Their second ‘costume’ romper was long sleeved with a deep V neckline and the color was cool. There were long jagged ‘stripes’ of color against a white ‘background’. But the ‘strips’ started the same teal of as Noah's shirt at the shoulders and arms and then got darker and bluer as it went until it was the same color as the bulk of my shirt at the hem of the shorts. Their feet were sort of covered in blue leather wedge sandals. Damien and Adam were turquoise and grey plaid shirts over aqua colored tank tops and their black jeans. Both Erica and Cassidy had stuck with their leather leggings and shoes, but Cassidy had changed into an aqua long sleeved racerback tunic. Erica had changed into a tunic too, but hers was sleeveless and almost avatar blue. The dancers were at the front but I could still see that they were also in teal on top and black bottoms. Brittany, Rainbow and the other girls were all wearing straight leg ‘yoga' pants and a mesh, crisscross, tanks with glaring white sports bras under them. The guys were in black wide leg jeans and blue, tight, hooded tanks. They were all wearing the same type of shoes as during our first set, just teal rather than burgundy. We said a very quick prayer, and headed to the stage. Santana, teased us as she headed out to take her place on stage, "you guys have gotta get that under control. You spend the whole performance making love to the audience then you bone each other every time you get off the stage." She taunted as the stage manager helped us get miced again.

As soon as we took the stage again we immediately launched into ‘Rescue Me' which was slated to be our next single. It had a fairly complicated dance number where Mercedes danced with Simeon and Jackson, I danced with Rainbow and Bianca and Noah danced with Elena and Britts. At the end of that one we were supposed to move into ‘Hard Out Here' which was mainly Mercedes and the dancers, but Puck gave the band a signal and they went into a low mellow musical interlude. "Before the intermission, Sam and I had Mercedes do a solo, well now it's Sam-I-Am's turn."

Mercedes chuckled. "Puck and I had a very hard time selecting the song we wanted to hear you sing. Puck was all for hearing ‘Grandma's Hands' again, but it would have made me cry."

"You made all of us cry." A rather loud voice that sounded a lot like Jake Owen shouted towards the stage.

"Well in any case…I wanted to hear the song I heard you singing to get Sloane to sleep over the Christmas break, ‘When You Say Nothing At All'. So we decided to compromise and take both of those off the table."

"But we are still going to get you to sing something…we just decided to go for smiles rather than tears. So why don't you break us off your glee audition song, ‘Billionaire'." Noah finished.

The band struck up the song, Cassidy gave it a cool new flair and I strummed my guitar and launched on into the fun song. It definitely made me smile…most of the audience. I was shocked as hell when Damien launched into the rap portion for me. He was pretty damn good too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feDaL95sviQ

When I finished to a very healthy amount of applause, we continued the concert for a few more songs including ‘Amazing’ and ‘Seven Days’ before Mercedes interrupted. "As you all can guess, now it is Puck's time to take a turn at a solo. You sang this song in the hospital when Finn was comatose. It was the single most touching thing I had ever heard you sing. And you know that it was hard for you to trump the song that gave our daughter her name."

"I didn't think you could make it through ‘Beth' without crying yourself, so I agreed with Mercy. "Treat these folks to ‘No Surrender' Puck." I completed the thought for him.

His song wasn't a dance and strum kind of song, so Brittany disappeared off stage and came back with a stool. She placed it at center stage, and Puck settled down to play. Damn if he didn't kick many of us back to that hospital room. It was a beautiful performance, but there wasn't a dry eye in the house by the end, not among those of us who knew what that song meant to him…which turned out to be pretty much the whole room since he was that good at conveying the sorrow of the moment as he sang.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8peU9yPepOM

It took the entire audience a moment or two to clean away their tears from that. We launched into ‘Shakin' My Head' which had them back up and dancing and laughing again. That was better. We kept going through our CD. Until we reached the last track, which wasn't the last track on the CD. We had started the night with ‘The Fighter' so we decided to close it with ‘ColorBlind'. As we took our bows we noticed that every single person was on their feet and seemed to be clapping so hard that their hands hurt. It was amazing. We gave another bow and headed off the stage. As we heard the calls for an encore, Noah, Mercy and I looked at each other. We didn't really have an encore prepped. Suddenly I had an idea.

I walked out and smiled at the audience. "New Directions. Please come up here." It took a few minutes to get everyone on stage and assembled with the background singers around the stand mikes. The three of us went over and I just went with it. "Can we give them the Nationals songs from last year? ‘No Diggity', ‘Same Love', and ‘Beat It'."

They all agreed. So I turned to the audience. “As many of you know, Mercedes, Puck and I were members of the current NHSSCA National champion choir. These are our choirmates and a few new faces. Please welcome the McKinley High New Directions.” We gave the audience three songs for their encore. Apparently that wasn’t enough. Then we decided to finish up with Mercedes, Unique, Regina, Jessica and Chase hitting us off with Mercy and RJC’s group presentation from before sectionals, three songs started off with the acapella ‘Oh Mary Don't You Weep' and ending with the Aaliyah song ‘Miss You'. The New Directions took our bows and we hugged our friends before we headed back to get changed. That time we had more time and Mercedes was taking off the stockings and everything anyway, so the condoms were used and we felt amazing. Who the hell needed drugs when you could perform in front of twenty-five hundred people and the make love with your heart's homes afterwards. We cleaned up and destroyed the six pack of chilled bottled water that was waiting on us. Puck kept on the leather pants but changed back into the shirt he'd had on when we arrived. I changed all the way back into my arrival outfit, but I packed the blazer into the garment bag we'd brought earlier. Mercedes put back on the strapless bra-shaper slip combo thingy and donned her ‘exit outfit', the Halston Heritage, amethyst and steel strapless ruffled color-blocked cocktail dress, along with the purple suede super high heels. Her lipstick went back to the one she'd worn when we first arrived that night as did her earrings. When she combed her hair with a wide tooth comb, the waves separated and lengthened a bit so her hair looked different too. Mercedes Jones was a total fashion magician and man did I love her.

We made sure that all of our stuff was back together, before we carried it over to the larger Green Room and helped get everything ready to go. Since Momma and Dani-mom were still breastfeeding, they were planning on calling it a night after the post-concert mingling, they, and Dad and Benton were going to take charge of making sure that all of our stuff got home safe and sound. They had a driver and a small truck at their disposal as well as a Lincoln town car. It was a little strange that we had come, we'd been seen, we liked to think we had conquered, and yet we were completely erasing all traces of our existence from the venue.

We were actually the last ones to leave the green room, we did a final walk through to make sure that we hadn't forgotten anything, we made sure that we threw away all the cups and our trash from our green room. We utilized the private facilities and then we headed out to mingle. As soon as we stepped foot into the concourse, we were met with a roar of applause. It washed over us filling us with an indescribable joy…we grabbed each other's hands and stepped into our future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tell me how you want me to handle the next two big weeks.  
> Week one is their spring break and all the promotional interviews.  
> Do you want me to take my usual 'uber-detailed' look at the different shows and promo deals? Or would you prefer a summary of events?  
> Week two is their search for a PA, Music Manager and Music Agent.  
> I would love to go all in on this, but I have been told the reason my numbers are so low is because people are a little tired of all the details I put in. So I leave it up to the people who are still reading.  
> Shall I continue to give you the story the way I always have? Or should I summarize more rather than less?  
> Thanks for letting me know what you think.  
> TTFN,  
> Anni


	18. Sunday Morning Coming Down & Pick Yourself Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ****PLEASE NOTE: If I am using an actor or musician as a face claim, they do not exist as their famous persona in this universe. IE: Darcy Lewis is a person so Kat Dennings doesn't exist. Or Hiram Berry is a person so Jeff Goldblum is not.*****
> 
> ****THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****
> 
> Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories:  
> This Chapter Dedicated to exileena & WisdomWriter25, two very encouraging Learning French Series reviewers.   
> I appreciate all of you.

Chapter 17  
Sunday Morning Coming Down (Johnny Cash & Kris Kristofferson)   
Puck PoV

It is a well-known fact that a person has had the best of fucking epic nights, when they don't actually get home until the next morning. We spent an hour or so mingling and hobnobbing after we finished out concert. But as soon as we joined the assembled crowd, Lyor sent a waiter over with some bubbly, the good shit too, not the sparkling cider. "I would like to propose a toast to KAMA, Mercedes, Noah, Sam…the night I met the three of you has become something of a turning point for Warner Records. In the last year, I have been able to convince the Board and the A&R team that the time has come for us to become leaders in the music industry once again. You three have infused new energy in our Pop and R&B departments. We come together tonight to celebrate the imminent release of your first album, Necessity 4 Existence, which will hit stores on Tuesday. There is not a single copy left here tonight." Everyone clapped. "Even more, your parents have been kind enough to allow me to announce that your midterm grades are in and congratulation guys, Mercedes, you have a three point seven so far this semester. Noah, you're a little ahead of her at a three point seven five and Sam, you're right behind them at three point six. So again, congratulations. Also allow me to congratulate you on having the current number one and number four singles in the nation."

Sam, Cede and I looked at each other in shock. It may sound crazy but with Finn in a coma and classes and trying to get the drop party all together, we hadn't even though about remembering to watch the charts. There may have been some girly hugging-jumping type shit going down at that pronouncement and it may not have just been Sexy Mama doing it either. "Holy Shit." I shouted happily.

The room laughed with us. "But that is not all. KAMA has been invited to perform at the MTV Movie Awards next month. Congratulations KAMA. I really, deeply believe that this is only the beginning for you. May your careers span decades."

Everyone raised their glasses to that. After we downed our Moet, we hugged each other some more. That was a huge honor considering that we were just out the gate. Then we were on autograph detail. We had each agreed on our generic autograph statement, ‘Never let the Kama go out of your life'. Since it could be loosely translated as passion or desire it seemed like it was a good one. Since she had the best and fastest writing, Babygirl handled writing that part then she signed her name and passed it to me or Sam which ever one's hands were empty at the moment. I think we signed every one of the CDs that had been sold we signed quite a few pairs of the shoes and the inner front liner of a lot of the journals. We got to talk to the fans while the VIPS mingled deeper in the concourse. It was really awesome.

As soon as we finished signing autographs, we went headed back into the throng of our guests. The first person I talked to was Timbaland. The legendary producer and rapper was really interested in working with us and Missy for a remix to ‘Hell to the No'. I got to talk to Ludacris and we talked about the chance for us to put a song on the next Fast and Furious soundtrack. We met the people we'd be interviewing for the booking agent position. The black dude Brantley…he was my pick for sure. He and I talked for like twenty minutes and he didn't get on my nerves, he didn't perve on my girl, or my guy and he was chill with the way that we wanted to do things. Then Deborah took the time to introduce us to Kelly and Michael, Seth Meyers and Hota. They were all really cool and we were really looking forward to doing their shows. Spring Break was going to be packed. But we had worked it out that for the most part we had time every day to spend with our friends.

We had a huge surprise planned for our peeps. On Thursday we were leaving New York to do some interviews out west, they all knew that, but what they didn't know was that since we were already flying the band out with us and we got a great multi-ticket discount for having a bigger group…we had tickets for all of them too. So after we got up at the crack of dawn to do CBS This Morning, we would fly on to Vegas to do a very special episode of the Howard Stern show, then we would fly to LA and do two sets of interviews on Friday. There were reserved seats for them at every taping that had an audience, or they could go and sight-see if they preferred. Saturday we'd have to separate. The band and NYC crew would come back to New York, our friends would return to their campuses, except Quinn, and possibly James…I wasn't sure if he was family reunion serious yet… who would join us as we headed to the Jones Family Reunion. The reunion weekend was being held at the Mission Pointe Resort on Mackinac Island in Illinois. There was supposed to be a lot more stuff to do than Eagle Ridge. There was still the spa and salon thing for the women and for the men there was golf and some other activities. But they had an arcade or bike riding around the island with a tour guide or a ‘kids club' for the younger kids…the spa from the year before was less family oriented than Moms D had cared for.

We'd finally make it home Sunday evening in time to make it back to our classes on Monday. Then in the evenings after classes we were in meetings every single day. Most of the interviews would be handled as business dinners. Then we'd head back to Warner and meet with our Warner team, who would still handle all our in house business. It would be the six of us who would finally decide on our band's personal assistant, booking agent and talent manager. Things were starting to get scary complicated, so I went to Abrams' mom while Sam was talking to Rutherford and a country singer with long dark hair. I know someone had told me his name. But we had met so many people that night, I couldn't remember anyone's. Cede was talking to Tina and a dude I recognized from XXL and a couple of other industry types. "Mrs. Abrams, we're looking at hiring three new employees, that's on top of all the ones we just hired. How is this all going to work? I mean, I did some checking online and we have fourteen people already on staff and technically three subcontractors in Mills, Ms. St. Clair and Frankie…aren't we stepping into like real company type stuff? Do we need a human resources office or anything?"

Gwen Abrams was a pretty woman with a ready, gentle smile once she got comfortable around you. She gave me one of those smiles and reassured me that we were fine. "Amicitiae Amore has hired a human resources generalist to handle all the HR needs for the subsidiaries. Once you guys get to thirty or more employees, you may have to get someone for yourselves, but for now you're set. Once you pick your personal assistant, they are going to have to start skyping in on the monthly meetings."

"Wow, who did you end up hiring?" I asked her. I was really just being nosy, but I was so relieved that we were good, I didn't censure myself…not even the little bit I usually do.

"Well, we actually culled Ben Zizes from Sydney Electric. He's been there for a long time and they keep passing him over for promotions because he refuses to work himself to death for what they are paying him. When Lauren was in the hospital and they tried to make him come in any way…that was the straw that broke the camel's back. Their loss was our gain."

Huh, I knew that Lauren's dad was a member of the cubical nation, but I had always thought he was an electrical engineer or something. "Cool. I wasn't sure…"

She laid her hand on my arm. "Puck, it is okay to have questions or to be a little apprehensive. Being a responsible adult is scary. Being a responsible adult who is responsible for the livelihood and well-being of others is just downright terrifying. Never worry about bringing your questions to me. I'm your business manager, I am always available to answer them…unless I'm doing your taxes…then try me back after I've submitted them and had at least two glasses of wine. In fact…maybe it is time for me to hire a junior accountant…someone to handle the regular tax services I provide so I can concentrate on Amicitiae Amore, KAMA and Amor Verissima. That's something I will consider when we all get back to Lima, but for tonight, you guys should just enjoy your evening. Okay?"

I promised her that I would. But it still hit in the back of my mind that we were making everyone around us change their lives as well. I could only hope that they felt the changes were for the better. I moved on to talk with a few other people who were there. A couple of wannabe famous, think they can get there on their backs types cornered me to tell me how much they loved my voice. I was about to get rude when April Rhodes popped up out of nowhere. Well not nowhere but she is really short, so in crowded rooms, you don't always see her approaching. "Oh get to stepping gold digging hos. Puckerman has been well trained to spot and avoid basic bitches, thirsty heifers, and gold digging broads…by the queen of all things mistressy…Moi." She chided. "Now walk away secure in the fact that you haven't lost any hair, you have no new scars or stilettos lodged in your asses." As soon as they scattered, she laced her arm through mine and she led me over to where Santana and Mercedes were still glaring at the chicks that had tried to press up on me.

"Thank you April…cause those chicks were about to make me catch a case." Mercedes said shaking her head. She gave me a searing kiss, just to reestablish her claim in the midst of a room full of people who may or may not have tried to push up on me. I deepened it even further, to lay my claim on her to a room full of people who would definitely have pushed up on her if they got the chance.

I heard a very familiar voice over my shoulder. "Damn, Little Cedes done grown all the way up. Never knew she could kiss like that." Rutherford commented to whoever was with him. "You know the first time those two dated, all Puck got was a couple of kisses on the cheek."

Apparently his companion was still Sam. "That's okay. She wasn't ready for more than that yet, and they weren't whole." He came over and joined us and the kiss went from heated to perfect.

"Who knew three people could kiss at one time. That seems like it should go against all laws of physics." Christophe said as he came over. "Anyway, hate to bust up the party. No, I really, really do…you three are outrageously hot together. But it is time to move from post-concert mingle to after party. Cassidy has called to let us know that she is ready for a crowd at The Place. All of your things have been loaded up and are on their way, along with your parents to your house. Let your band know that they can pick up their kits there too."

It was with total regret that we couldn't just take our Babygirl and head home to make her scream our names until she was totally hoarse that we broke the kiss and made our way to the waiting limos. The twenty minute drive actually took twenty minutes since traffic in Manhattan is somewhat better when one was approaching two o'clock in the morning. Still we'd managed to get our hands someplace very pleasant, so hot and tight and wet, and made up for the fact that we'd not really been able to finger Cede properly during our intermission play time. I was shocked as hell to see that there were paparazzi out there that time of night. The location of the after party must have leaked. Thankfully there weren't masses of people, just about twenty five or so papz with cameras. They may have gotten a few shots as the limo door opened of me with two of Sam's fingers in my mouth, but nothing naughtier than that. If our boo's legs were a little unsteady those first few steps from the Limo into the restaurant turned lounge for the evening, well, I'm sure they thought it was the results of stilettos and uneven pavement.

Somehow, even though we were one of the first cars to leave, we were one of the last to arrive. We entered and the party was already going strong. For the most part, other than our family and people like Ms. Pillsbury, Shelby, David, Coach Bieste and her boyfriend, the crowd was the under twenty five portion of the VIP reception. The current ND seniors were allowed to come, but the rest of the choir had to go back to their rooms. There was no way were were being responsible for the kinds of shit Hell and Cassie would lead the sophomores and freshmen into. But apparently there were a few of the juniors at the after party anyway. Regina, Jessica and Chase were there as was Tessa and even Jake was there with his crew. Aidan was there with Tessa though so that relieved my mind. Having Jake and Ryder both there was asking for trouble, but amazingly Unique and Marley managed to keep them sane. I noticed that Aaron and Matt were there. All of the Rangemen had showed up too. Other than them there were a few of the older celebrities there, but for the most part, we were totally able to relax and have fun.

So that was exactly what we did. We partied until like six in the morning. Cassidy ran the turn tables and she held us down. Every song was something that we could dance to. When Sam and I weren't feeling the music or just needed a break, Cede danced with her girls. I noticed that Bryant had spent most of his time that night chilling with Nadia, one of Mills friends from way back. We'd met her Thursday night when she'd gotten into town. She seemed like good people, but Bryant couldn't get with her. New Jersey was the arm pit of the northeast, but even its citizens would pitch a fit if their representative married a fetish model. But still, seeing her and Mercedes hug was seriously awesome. There was a whole lot of tatas involved in those two hugging. It was really great.

The only problem with the after party was that there was no food. We danced and talked and had a blast. I got a chance to dance with Ms. Wicked Wisdom herself…that was cool. I noticed that she was pumping me for information on my former choir mates and it didn't take me long to realize why. Her son Jaden was talking to Chase and the body language said that they were seriously flirting. Not too far away, Willow was trying to get her flirt on with Joe. "Your little girl is safe. I don’t even know if he realizes that he is being flirted with. Joe is uber-Christian, but thankfully he isn’t religio-so. Last year was his first one in public school. He is a truly good guy…so good in fact that we tend to call him Teen-Jesus."

"And what about my son?" she asked with an ‘alright, you caught me' kind of a smile.

I shrugged. "Chase is focused. I'm fairly sure that she has huge plans…like first black, female president big. She is on two national championship high school competition teams, the Cheerios and the New Directions. I can't see her doing much more than getting her flirt on tonight at a party. I don't think she is the ‘boy comes before my dreams' type. I've seen the accidental hurt those types can cause, but then again, your son could just be enjoying some light flirting at a party too."

Mrs. Pinkett-Smith seemed satisfied with that. So for the rest of the dance she drilled me about me, Cede and Sam's plans for the future. She passed me off to Barbra of all people. Thankfully Cassidy was running some Sinatra when that happened. "I have to say, I'm not sure what I was expecting when I allowed Jim to convince me to come tonight."

"Did you enjoy yourself, Ma'am?" I asked. I wasn't a huge Streisand fan…but I was Jewish and she was Barbra Streisand.

She smiled benevolently. "You three have quite a lot of talent. I liked the lyrics, even of your more humorous songs. Which one is to be your next single?"

That didn't really answer my question, but I would certainly take the compliments. "The next single was actually supposed to be the first. But after ‘The Fighter' they wanted us to show off our softer sides. We're releasing ‘Rescue Me' in April."

She looked thoughtful. "If possible debut the song at the MTV awards show. Historically the songs that are debuted at that awards show always hit number one. Also, make sure that you surround yourselves with people you can trust. All too often in this industry, we lose talented young people to drugs or alcohol…having people you trust around you can help to buffer you from the excesses this industry can put in your face." I thanked her for the advice as the song ended. "Now, I would like it very much if you would introduce me to Santana Lopez. I find that she still intrigues me."

I laughed. "Oh yeah, Tana's good at that. We couldn't believe that you took the time to write her back. That was probably the main reason that we sent you an invitation. You seem like you're just good people. We wanted to send one to Sexy Mama's idol…but she chickened out."

Ms. Streisand laughed merrily. "I probably would have too when I was her age. But next time, even if you have to go behind her back to issue the invitation…do it. There is nothing more incredible than meeting someone who you look up to and hearing them tell you that you are good at what you do. And I believe that your Mercedes would definitely remember that moment for the rest of her life."

I found Santana talking to Mercedes, Pink, Jill Scott and India Arie. When I made the introductions, it was easy to see that all three of the other world famous singers were freaking out just as much as Mercedes and Santana at meeting the icon. Ms. Streisand had something nice to say to each of them. She knew exactly who they were and what at least one of their songs were. That was really, really genuinely ladylike of her. We left her and Santana alone to converse and I realized that it was a slow song playing, so Cede and I took the floor. The rest of the night passed in a haze of dancing, joy and fun. People started heading out around four thirty or five, and by six The Place was empty except for thirteen original national championship NDs, James, Vince, the four tenants and Jon and Ben's dates, Mills and her crew, along with Uncle Saul, Roman, Neil, and Bryant. Apparently Madeline St. Clair and Roman Manoso had hit it off as had Sexy Mama's eldest uncle and Nadia Merchant. The funniest thing was that Ms. Pillsbury was curled up on one of the lounges, talking intently with one of the few remaining Rangemen. Most of the security experts had hooked up with somebody and left to get their grooves on over the course of the preceding four hours. But that one had been stuck like glue to Ms. Pillsbury since we got to The Place. It was nice to see her talking to a real person and enjoying herself enough that she didn't even seem to realize that probably a million other people had sat on the rented furniture.

We all pitched in to help Roman and the staff close up faster. Working together, even Hal pitched in, it only took us thirty minutes to get everything ready for pickup by the rental company who would arrive to transform the restaurant back into its usual glory at ten. We said goodbye to everyone that wasn't heading to Covent Ave, and asked Hal to make sure that Ms. Pillsbury got back to The Chambers Hotel. He agreed and we watched as Hal hailed them a taxi. The regular limos had long ago been released, but per the contract the company had sent us a stretch hummer that would fit all of us who were going back to our house inside. As soon as we were inside the hummer, I looked around at my lovers and friends. "I don't know about you guys, but I am starving."

"Man, Puck, thank you for saying it." Finn cosigned. "I'm so hungry I could eat like an entire cow."

Sam found the button that lowered the partition between us and the driver. "Sir, is there a good like twenty four hour diner that you could take us to on the way home. We'll buy you breakfast…"

"My sister is a waitress at Scotty's Diner. It's a little out of the way, but the food is good and the portions are big." He told us honestly.

"Ooohh please take us there, Mister." Mercedes asked happily. "I need waffles…do they have waffles?"

"They have Belgian waffles, and French toast and pancakes. And you don't have to call me mister or sir…my name is Leo." Our driver told us as he aimed the car towards the restaurant.

Lauren whipped out her phone and searched for the diner's number. We're so lucky to have smart friends. She called ahead and they had a table for twenty readied for us when we got there. Decked out in our finery, we looked pretty out of place though there were more than a few club crawlers there among the blue collar workers who were catching a meal either before they headed home or before they headed to work. When we were seated, and we made Leo sit with us, he'd tried to head to the counter. He quickly learned that that wasn't how we rolled. "Sam, what time did girl-Sam and her friends leave?" Cede asked him after we'd all ordered coffee and juice or whatever we wanted. I noticed that every single one of us had gotten a glass of water to accompany our main drink.

"Oh, yeah, they headed out to get the triplets as soon as the concert was over. Their flight home leaves in like two hours. So they couldn't come to the after party." He told us with a smile. "Dad took Stevie, Stacey and Sloane to their hotel room yesterday while Mom was at the spa with the other ladies. So they got to see the babies too."

Mike checked out the nearest folks and decided that they were far enough away to ensure our group's privacy. "So, I'm pretty sure that once we've eaten and we get back to your house, the crashes will be hard enough to be heard round the world. We should talk the reactions and everything we learned tonight-well, last night-now so we can shower and get some sleep."

We all agreed that that was smart. Tina looked at us and sighed. "St. Jackass was there as was Rachel."

"I knew that St. James had shown up. I talked to him after the concert. He apologized for calling me lazy and admitted that he'd tried to hold me down so that his precious Rachel could climb higher." Cede told us with a wry grin. "I told him that he'd have to show and prove. He could prove that he had really changed by not letting Berry use him now that he is in town. I got April to introduce him to Sydney Greene. Hopefully if he can find some success of his own, Rachel will certainly end up pissing him off from trying to use him for a boost up. Or she will get so jealous of his success that she'd run afoul of him anyway."

No one could challenge her theories. She was right if St. Jackass got successful and managed to keep Rachel's claws out of him, he would prove to us that he really had changed and he would piss the Hobbit off enough to give her someone else to focus her ire at. She was getting tedious. "I didn't get to see any of the grandmothers all night. Did they have fun?" I asked Sam quietly.

Kurt started to laugh. "Oh, Bubbie Ruth, Grandma Mae and MeMaw Rose had a blast. They loved the hor d'oeurves and Sam, your MeMaw tried one of each of the cocktails plus had a couple of glasses of wine and she wasn't even tipsy. Grandma Mae did tell me to tell you three that she overheard some TV exec trying to talk Deborah into getting you to let them use ‘Your Guardian Angel' for a theme song on their new show. Bubbie left with Lester Santos, the Rangeman who did our walk through when we first got the house." He reminded and explained to us all. "The three of them are going out to brunch later today."

"I don't know if we want to go that route. Remember that chick whose song got used for ‘Dawson's Creek…it kind of killed her career." Sam pointed out. "But Anika said that Will Smith was interested in having us write a song for the soundtrack of his next movie."

"That would be fucking epic." Finn laughed. "He was really nice. He talked to me about how I felt about not being able to play anymore because it was too dangerous. I just told him that I had never really wanted to go pro or anything. He said that he is thinking about doing a movie about the doctor who figured out that all the head injuries were what was causing the NFL players to kill themselves, or something like that."

Cede pulled out her phone and laid it on the table. "Becky watched the ET coverage of our red carpet. She said they handled it pretty much the same way that they did any other carpet watch event. And she checked out the blogosphere and the usual hateration is still strong. The thin-spiration bloggers are fighting back against my body positivity message. The one percenters, and the ones who are sure that they are just a step away from being a one percenter, have taken issue with Sam and the anti-Semites are casting shade at Puck. Otherwise though, the internet loves us. Oh and someone remind me to send her the Valentino pumps. She loved those."

Kurt nodded. "You know, if we need a PA, why can't we just use Becky…she's been doing that for Sue for-like-ever…" I grumbled.

"Her parents will not let her go to the Lima Bean alone. Sue offered to bring her as her plus one and take care of her for tonight…they wouldn't go for it for a weekend. So you know they sure as hell aren't going to let her move to New York and live pretty well on her own." Cede said shaking her head.

"That might be a good thing for you guys. You know that Becky is just as mean as I am, if not meaner; people just don't say that shit because she has DS. You know Becks would knee cap a fool and look them dead in the eye and convince them it was all their fault." Santana chimed in. We could only laugh, ‘cause that shit was totally true. "Anyway, on to me. Barbra Streisand talked to me for twenty minutes. She asked me what I was doing now and congratulated me on the fact that I was getting an education as well as working my way into the industry. She asked me if we'd had further problems from Rachel. Was I wrong to sing like a fucking canary? I told her all about the crap Bat-Shit Crazy Berry has pulled since the letter. I'm telling you now, the look of absolute disdain when I mentioned what she had pulled at last year’s nationals was only surpassed by her selling the engagement vid to TMZ. I think the Midget is in for a rude awakening if she ever puts herself in Barbra's face."

"Weren't you worried that she would think you were a snitch or a tattle-tale?" Brittany asked her girlfriend dryly.

Santana gave a total Kanye shrug. "I just assumed if she asked it was because she wanted an answer."

No one could argue with that logic. We'd have all done the same thing anyway. I mean if an ICON asks you for information, of course you give it. Vince spoke up next. "I got quite a bit of info out of Cher Lloyd. She said Lyor was hoping to get you guys on some of her tour stops. She thinks that by the time she does another US tour, not this summer coming, but the one after that, you guys are going to be too big to be her middle card. She was way too interested in your sex lives though."

"Weren't they all?" I groused. "I'm not sure I understand why. Everybody bones…gay, straight, bisexual…we all fuck. Why is everyone so interested in how we get down?"

"I will give you a hundred bucks if you ask Howard Stern that." Quinn chuckled.

From there the conversation devolved into guesses at his answer and what his callers might chime in with. Our meals arrived. I had ordered too much food. I couldn't decide between a spinach, bacon and Swiss omelet and the French dip sandwich with fries. So I got both. I knew I wouldn't finish them both, but hell that was what to go boxes were for. Next to me, Sexy Mama was chowing down on her Belgian waffle with bacon. She had given Sam her two eggs. Cede didn't care to have eggs anywhere near syrup not at all. Sam's sliced steak and eggs weren't hurt by the extra eggs. It was as if there were an unspoken agreement that we could talk about the party later. Instead the conversation disintegrated into a conversation about who we should make sure that we invited next time we did a drop party. I couldn't keep track of all the people they named, but when Sam pulled out Samuel L. Jackson, it became a total quote fest as everyone started to convince the others that their favorite Samuel L. Jackson movies quote.

"Nope, it might not be PC cause it was kind of a racist movie, but nothing at all beats ‘yeah I killed ‘em and I hope they burn in hell!'. Nothing can beat it." Vince, James and Sexy Mama all agreed. Sometimes I think that they banded together like that just because each of them was so used to being the only black person among so many white folk, they were just happy to have other black people they could band together with.

Santana definitely disagreed. "No, dude, just no. Nothing beats ‘mano a mano? My dick wants to laugh'. ‘Great White Hype'…said to David Duchovny’s character."

"Tana, my sweet Devil Doll…You know I love you, but I have to disagree. Best Sam Jackson quote is, in fact, ‘You know me. It's my duty to please that booty!' from ‘Shaft'. So epic." Artie threw out.

"See, you guys are all wrong." Leo jumped in. "Maybe its cause you weren't old enough to see it and it isn't a cable friendly movie…but in ‘Long Kiss Goodnight', he said something that has stuck in my head all my days since…‘everyone knows, when you make an assumption, you make an ass out of "u" and "umption".' That is something to live your life by."

Finally I couldn't take it anymore. "That is a good one…but man, nothing speaks more to the human condition than his quote on the true nature of man from ‘Deep Blue Sea'." I quoted like the entire speech. ‘You think water moves fast? You should see ice. It moves like it has a mind. Like it knows it killed the world once and got a taste for murder. After the avalanche, it took us a week to climb out. Now, I don't know exactly when we turned on each other, but I know that seven of us survived the slide... and only five made it out. Now we took an oath, that I'm breaking now. We said we'd say it was the snow that killed the other two, but it wasn't. Nature is lethal but it doesn't hold a candle to man.' It's totally true too man. We kill each other just for shits and giggles. But in nature, if you aren't food or a rival for resources, you're good."

We were all so sleepy we were damn near high. It was easy to tell because we all started nodded and looking like that was the most profound statement in the history of speech. Leo seemed to realize that we were totally toasted, so he had his sister and her fellow waitstaff get us bundled up. There were some empty plates, but mostly we all had to go boxes. They were so awesome they even wrote our names on the boxes for us. Everyone looked surprised when they didn't get a check, but we'd told Linda, Leo's sister that it was all to come to me. I hit her off with the platinum card; Saulie had gotten for the three of us from Citi-Bank for when a bill was too big to go through our regular account. I wasn't sure that it applied, but since I was too sleepy to do the math, I decided that it was better to be safe rather than sorry. I added in a hundred and fifty buck tip, they were good and that came out to about twenty percent per waitress. Actually, four hundred would have gone through on the regular card. But I was too sleepy to even care. Leo bundled us all into the hummer. He got us home, and with help from Ben, Jon and Ryan, who had each had the good sense to nap in the afternoon, we all got to our appropriate apartments and knocked out.

It is a well-known fact that a person has had the best of fucking epic nights, when they dream about it when they finally do get to bed.

Pick Yourself Up (Nat King Cole & George Shearing)  
Mercedes PoV

We had made it through the drop party, the after party and the after party breakfast. We even made it to the correct bed, sofa bed, loveseat, recliner, armchair and ottoman, or sleeping bag. Seriously it was a totally amazing amount of organization but we had everyone taken care of sleeping wise. Everyone agreed that Finn and Lauren would have the full bed in our guest room. Tina and Mike took the recliners in Sam and Noah's man cave. Que's roomies had our family room with the big ass sectional and the sleeper armchair. They actually just needed a place to crash for Friday and Saturday nights. Sunday, they were heading to their respective Spring Breaks. Vince was staying the whole time, because he had definitely become family, if not over Thanksgiving and Christmas than for sure during the month we'd all spent worrying over Finn. He had one of the two guest rooms in Bartana's side. James and Quinn had the other one. 

When I woke up, I could not believe that I had slept in a three hundred dollar, designer dress. I couldn't believe that I had slept in what amounted to a party, concert, and after party’s worth of sweat and other bodily fluids. I looked over at the clock and noticed that it was a little past one thirty in the afternoon, which meant that I'd probably gotten about five hours of sleep. I looked over at Sam and Puck, both of whom were still knocked the fuck out in their finery. I sighed. I wanted to go back to sleep but being groddy was not a state I could sleep in. I managed to get out of the bed without waking either of them and padded into the bathroom. I realized that we seriously needed to get a separate receptacle for our dry clean only clothing. I made a mental note to worry about it later and sat at my vanity to remove all my makeup. Since I had slept in it and there were layers of it that had soaked into my pores over night, I did my own full cleansing and moisturizing routine.

It started with makeup removal. Kurt was a huge Clinique whore. But to be honest I preferred Lancôme. Their bi-facial, double action eye makeup remover was followed by the crème radiance clarifying cream to foam cleanser. I felt so yucky for having slept in the three layers of stage makeup spray and everything else, that I did the whole face cleanser twice. I hit the Absolue Premium bx advanced replenishing toner pretty hard too. I was going to have to drag the girls to a Neiman Marcus so I could restock my supply over the course of the week. I was so hard core I threw on the white clay purifying mineral mask and let it rest on my face and neck while I got ready to take my shower. I hated washing my hair two days in a row, but Rickie had used so much product, it was a necessity. Once I was one hundred percent clean, I wrapped my weave up in a towel and slathered my face with the Absolue Precious Cells repairing and recovering day cream that included a SPF fifteen sunscreen. I padded into my closet, Sam and Noah still asleep on the bed. They had rolled into each other and were adorably cuddled up. At least they had gotten their shoes off, that put them above me at the whole putting themselves to bed thing.

Looking through my lingerie chest, I found a comfortable, supportive pretty green bra and the matching panties. That done, I soon found a pair of black yoga pants, a black tank top and an emerald green tunic top with three quarter length sleeves. For a long moment I tried to decide between flip flops or my awesome emerald on forest Nikes…black socks and the Nikes won the battle. I snuck down to the kitchen, quickly realizing that I was the only one awake. I didn't feel like cooking, I didn't feel like reading anything, not even the blogs or twitter. Finally I decided to see if anyone was up on the other side. I managed to get into the study and sneak through the panic room and found, to my pleasure absolute solitude. It was comforting, pleasant silence. I grabbed my phone and texted with Trice and Tonya. While we were deciding if we wanted to meet up for a late lunch and a little shopping before they had to fly back to Michigan, we all got the same text. ‘Twin Boys…healthy and strong…born at eleven thirty-six and eleven fifty-one. Names will be announced soon as we can agree on them.'

That settled it. A quick series of texts had a meet up time and a meeting location. I snuck back up to my room and brushed my hair through with a jojoba, argon, and pomegranate seed oil blend that was not only healthy for the weave it did great things for my natural hair underneath. A nice sleek ponytail and some berry stain lip gloss and I was good to go. I grabbed my purse and left all my people a message. I meet my mother and sisters at the FAO Schwarz flagship store. We had a very quick meal at the café before we went shopping. It didn't take me very long at all to decide on two Burt's Bees baby organic bath time gift sets and a Trend Lab Dr. Seuss one fish two fish ten piece hooded towel, wash cloth and burp cloth set in blue and red for Baby A and a Trend Lab MVP ten piece hooded towel, wash cloth and burp cloth set which was also in blue and red. Mom went for feeding time stuff. She got them three Philips Avent nine ounce BPA Free natural polypropylene bottles three Packs each. The adorable bottles werecovered in blue monkeys. Two of the Philips Avent four in one electric steam baby bottle sterilizers. Patrice and Tonya got each of the babies a Boppy pillow. Then they dithered over and over again on which pillow covers to get for each of them. They finally went with the Boppy heirloom pillow with a fox and owl on it for Baby B and Boppy heirloom pillow with a monkey on it for Baby A.

We paid for our purchases and had them wrapped and arranged for them to be shipped to Franklin's townhouse in Silver Springs. Then we headed to Neiman Marcus. We all agreed to never tell anyone how much we spent on sending the babies cute little outfits and adorable little shoes. Again wrapping and shipping services in store proved to be our bestest friend. Then I dragged them over to the Lancôme counter and restocked every piece of my deep cleansing and moisturizing regimen. I grabbed a travel pack and lucked into a really great gift with purchase…I wouldn't be able to use most of the colors, but they would be perfect in the big ass makeup kit I decided to assemble for all the girls in the band. I also found a dark water vine woven lidded hamper for our dry clean only clothes. I was definitely happy with my little shopping excursion.

After swinging by the hotel to let Mom pack up her purchases, we grabbed all their luggage and the rest of the expanded Evans-Jones-Pucker/Altman family and headed back to the house. Thankfully everyone had gotten up and showered and I was in time to see Taylor, Topanga and Kat off. We ordered dinner in, from a nearby brick oven pizzeria, and as soon as everyone was seated at the table, or in the living room around the coffee table, Momma looked over at James and calmly said, "Has Quinn told you about the Jones Family Gathering?"

"Yes Ma'am. She said that you guys have really made a place for her in your family and that she really loves going." James answered with a smile.

Momma looked a Quinn and raised an eyebrow. I had never seen Quinn blush that hard before. "I…wasn't sure if it would be okay." She muttered.

The screw face Momma threw her was hilarious. "Que, you know better. Darling you are family, you know that. You have to bring him and get the family approval before too long. Essie has already asked me three times if you are bringing him or not."

"Oh, you have no choice now." Devon laughed. "Essie has basically demanded that you bring him to the Gathering so she can really vet him." He explained to those present who wouldn't have understood the way my crazy Jones family works.

I looked over at James. "If you're going to come, this year would be the best to make your debut. Everyone will be talking about how in the year between the last Gathering and this one Franklin got together with a girl, technically, young enough to be his daughter and knocked her up with twins. So you could slip in almost unnoticed."

James started to laugh. "Please, you acting like I'm brand new…black grandmothers and great aunts…they invented the term multitasking. They can interrogate me and gossip about the other guy at the very same time. All while they seemed unfailingly polite but leaving me with frostbite if they decide that they don't like me."

Everyone at the table who had been to either the Jones Family Gathering or any black family reunion was nodding in agreement. Tike, Bartana, and Hudzes looked confused before they shrugged it off. Artie just couldn't not say something though, "I guess it's a black thing and the rest of us wouldn't understand."

The laughter flowed. Quinn looked at James and gave him a small smile. "Would you like to attend the Jones Family Gathering with me next Saturday and Sunday?"

"I would love to. Where is it? I'll need to get a flight."

"Well, that's not entirely…accurate." Sam said in a rather flawless Nimziki impression from ID4.

James always picked up what Sam put down, "What, which part?"

Sam, Puck and I exchanged a telling glance, deciding that it was time to let the cat out of the bag. "Well, since so much has happened this year and college spring break is supposed to be all about spending time with your friends…we figured that we would take you guys with us when we went to Vegas and LA. So that we could all hang out more." I gave them all a bright and happy smile.

"Yeah, besides when we added you guys into the band and everything, we got a freaking awesome deal on the airline tickets and an even better deal on hotel rooms." Puck said reasonably.

Sam chimed in too. "And we made sure that you all had tickets to the shows we're doing. So once we leave the studios we can get right back to hanging out."

There was way too much excitement in response to that tidbit of information. We were all talking and laughing, and it hit me everyone was so excited because they weren't ready to be apart again any more than Puck, Sam and I were. Before we knew it, it was time for Mom, Dad, Gabs, Sand, Becks, George and all the siblings to depart. Knowing that we would see them the following weekend cushioned the blow, but it was still hard to see them off. It two mini-van sized taxies to fit them all and I may have shed a tear or two. After that we had some gender specific fun time. The guys, including Blaine took over the now empty family room to watch a wide and varied selection of action movies and talk mad shit about their college experiences. Watching boys bond was always amusing, but we ladies, and Kurt, headed up stairs to my room and Kurt and I showed them the clothes that I would be wearing for the different interviews that week. There were jokes, there was a last minute, "oh dear God Mercedes, what were you thinking and Kurt why did you let her think it" Good Morning America, wardrobe choice redo.

We talked about our classes and our grades. We talked about our boys. We tried to talk Lauren into keeping at least her pedicure after spring break. One day we would convince her of the necessity of pampering herself at least a little. She successfully deflected the conversation to what was appropriate dress for the different show tapings. That conversation lead to us completely relocating. First we picked Tina's outfits for each of the shows and took note of the things that she would need for Vegas and LA that she hadn't brought to New York. Then we helped Tina relocate her and Mike's things down to the family room where they would have more privacy after hours. After that we pieced together a wardrobe for Lauren and made her a list as well. The process was repeated for Quinn…Kurt had his whole wardrobe at his disposal as did Santana and Brittany, so they were golden.

Since the night before had lasted well into that morning, we all went to bed early. That Monday morning dawned bright and early, yet it almost felt like sleeping in. We got up at eight, everyone was fed, showered and out the door by ten. We raced to Macy's and literally fulfilled everyone's needs in an hour and a half. It was probably wrong how much fun we had. I was shocked because Sam, Noah and I actually got hounded for autographs as the gang was checking out. So it took us an extra half hour and Santana putting on her ‘dealing with the fans' smile to get out of there. It was lunchtime, and we were all fairly hungry, so we stopped on the way back to the house to grab lunch.

Despite the delays, Sam, Puck, Santana and I were ready with our show apparel in two garment bags, when the NBC car service arrived at three that afternoon. The guys helped the driver to load the instrument kits into the back of the provided Suburban. Our band had all trusted us with the overnight protection of their precious instruments, and they were meeting us at the NBC studios to do sound check, which would double as a quick practice. Given the stage size we weren't using the dancers, though the six of them would join the old hat New Directions in the audience. Brittany, Artie, Kurt and Blaine were confident they could get everyone there by four thirty when the doors opened for those with tickets. It made me giggle to think that just the year before we'd been worrying about prom or nationals but there we were off to tape an episode of Late Night with Seth Meyer.

When we got to the studio, the line for the non-ticketed, first come-first served, seats was long and thick. We signed a few autographs, but the studio security wasn't letting many of them ask. Sound check was smooth as silk. It was kind of weird how early the ‘late night' shows actually taped. We did set up, with the drum kit on a rolling platform that could be moved into place again right before we went on, and sound check in about an hour. We got to meet and talk with the ‘sofa guests' the ones who would actually sit down and talk with Seth. Neil deGrasse Tyson and Sam spent like forty-five minutes in ‘makeup' dissecting all the things that would have to be in place for there to be life on other planets. That man was so smart, he sort of made my head hurt. Christian Slater and Puck seemed to enjoy discussing reforming bad boys and how much easier it was to be good once you'd been really bad. I had a pretty okay talk with Andy Daly, I really only knew him from his voice work, so it was a little weird to put a face to the name and voice. My hair was turned into a halo of long flowing waves and curls and my face was given a darker, evening look, even though it wasn't the cocktail hour. The makeup or TV was entirely different now because it was done in such a way to show up best on HD televisions. That meant that none of us could do our own.

The taping was very prompt. It started at five thirty and at six fifteen; it was time for us to go on. I'd found a great ASTR, twist wrap asymmetrical body-con dress. It was black and stopped pretty high on my right thigh, but ended at my left ankle. I accessorized it with a pair of purple Nicholas Kirkwood suede and mesh pumps with a striking T-strap and circular suede embellishments at the ankle strap and peep toe. They bumped me up a whole four and a quarter inches and I loved how funky they looked. I also allowed myself more jewelry than I usually would have, simply to bring visual interest to the dress. I'd found a great line by Alex Bittar called Miss Havisham. It had a cool pair of ‘orbiting drop earrings, long link station necklace, a link bib necklace that fit with the longer one as if they were two parts of a whole, a liquid pave bracelet, and an encrusted crisscross cuff for the other arm. They were all in rose gold which looked amazing against the black of the dress. And since the dress had a high collar and long sleeves, it really looked amazing all together. Santana and Xena had found their dress first and I'd picked something that would compliment it. They'd agreed on a ruched long sleeve dress by Leith. It was the same shade of purple as my shoes and shared a similar neckline and the same length and tightness of sleeves. They paired it with a cute pair of black leather booties for Santana and a pair of vintage T-strap pumps for Xena. Where I'd gone big on the jewelry, they had gone light. Just simple drop earrings and silver and black necklaces. Damien and Adam were in black slacks and deep purple Henleys. Sam and Noah's outfits were almost the same as Dam-Dam's black slacks and Puck was in a deep heather Henley and Sam was in a royal purple pullover.

We performed ‘The Fighter' and then Seth came over and shook our hands and threw to commercial. Noah, Sam and I followed him over to the sofa, and I took the arm chair while my guys stood behind me for the two or three minutes we were there. "You guys are amazing. Thank you so much for performing for us. That song is from the soundtrack to the major motion picture ‘SongBird'. You guys have got to come back and let me interview, your story is just so interesting." Seth said in a kind of a rush before he thanked all the guests and boom it was over. It took us about forty-five minutes to get cleaned up, get back into our street clothes and get the instruments packed up. Kurt, Quinn and Mike had made dinner for everyone, and we all chilled out and vegged. The next day was jammed packed and started before dawn.

KAMA, Santana and Brittany were out the door by five o'clock. ABC had a car pick us up. They also had three men in a truck with the proper logos on the side, and one of whom Bubbie Ruth knew and vouched for, to load up all the instruments and everything else that was stacked in the small storage room on one side of the elevator. I'd known that it was empty space, the other side held all the mechanics for the elevator and that one had a door. I never knew that what I thought was wasted space had a door too. It was really well hidden, but apparently Sam had known about it. So when the Suburban had dropped us off the night before, he'd directed the guys to bring it down here…which was easier because it was street level. For Good Morning America, there was two full segments, a performance and an interview with Robin Roberts. For the performance, we were doing a stripped down performance of ‘ColorBlind'. It was the full band, minus Cassidy, but only three of the dancers. Rainbow had come up with her version of the Marko's video choreography. Brittany, Jackson and Simeon would be doing the dancing on a side stage while we and the band gave them something to dance to.

As soon as we got there, we did the sound check, we were actually getting pretty good at telling the proper channels and just having to tweak things. Once that was all set, we did hair and makeup. Xena had found and picked out her and Santana's outfit for the performance, so they were in a cobalt blue flowy jumpsuit with an embellished halter neckline highlighting a front keyhole. It was sleeveless and had a blouson top pulled in by elastic at waist and finished off with wide legs. Similar pairs of gold, beaded Grecian sandals, heeled for Santana and flat for Xena and gold bangle bracelets finished off their costume. Dam-Dam were each in silky light blue dress shirts and navy blue slacks.

I had gone for a blue between the sky and cobalt of the background singers, that the designer, Nicole Miller, called classic blue. The dress itself was pretty simple, a tuck-pleated gown with a not very deep V neckline…it was sleeveless and had a fitted bodice, floaty not really A-line skirt and a thigh high slit on my right leg. With it, I only wore my cross, my diamond studs, the watch I'd gotten for Christmas and my engagement ring. Sam and Puck were both in not quite as dark a navy as Dam-Dams' pants were, and his light weight sweater was so light a blue it was almost white. Puck had gone for a classic cut business shirt, with the sleeves rolled up to show off his forearms in a shade of blue Geoffrey Beene called periwinkle but it was between my classic and Santana and Xena's cobalt.

The trio of dancers were a whole new kettle of fish, they were the ones who had established the blue color scheme; based on the dress Brittany would be dancing in. It was a sleeveless, shapeless, flowy, ombre blue dress with a subtly jagged, asymmetrical hem. The dress managed to include every single shade of blue the rest of us were wearing. Jackson and Simeon were both in blue, not cobalt not navy but somewhere in between, wide flowy cotton pants, they were shirtless and all three dancers were barefoot. Brittany was the only girl whose hair was loose or visibly curled. My own was pulled back in a stick straight, low ponytail and Santana and Xena both had their hair pulled into a huge, in Xena's case, top knot.

The show's first segment was all news and weather, then they did their entertainment news which they used to segue into our performance. Justin started it off with the dramatic piano solo, then I began to sing, slow and smooth. When I hit the first bridge, Puck, Sam, and Erica came in with the strings. It wasn't until the chorus that Dave added in a low subtle rumble of his drums. Brittany, Jackson and Simeon absolutely, positively stole the show. I almost forgot to come out of the final chorus I was so busy watching them move. With her hair and dress whipping around as she danced a twirled at first between the two men in a dance that conveyed intimacy and joy. But that changed during the first chorus to tension and suspicion and anger. Finally she was alone after Simeon and then Jackson danced angrily off the stage. It was sorrow and loneliness and fear until she collapsed in ball on the floor as the last strains of my voice petered out.

The studio was filled with applause. It felt amazing as ever, even the smaller slightly more intimate crowd. There was another news and weather segment, during which, Puck, Sam and I changed…though actually they change shirts to dove grey and ice white shirts and added the blazers that matched their pants. I changed into a dark cherry, Escada wool-blend dress with a simple cowl neckline, and short sleeves. It was a lovely day dress that I could have worn to an office. I paired it with the same Cole Haan patent leather pump, with morning appropriate three and a quarter inch heels I had worn for the performance. I loved them because they had very classic lines from their almond toes to the adjustable sling back halter strap. The stage manager settled us on the couch…but they wouldn't do it in our usual, me in the middle arrangement. Instead I was closest to Robin where she sat in a complimentary beige arm chair. I made sure that I sat straight and crossed my legs at the ankles while keeping my knees together. Grandma Mae and the great aunts had all drilled proper etiquette into us girls like whoa, and it didn't matter how times changed, we were expected to act like their definitions of ladies in public. I figured that was even more true when on television.

We went over the questions that she would ask quickly during the commercial break. They were all pretty much soft ball. But we'd expected that. When George Stephanopoulos threw to her, she introduced us by name first and then as KAMA. "So Mercedes, how did KAMA come about?" she asked with a reassuring smile. I guess I looked as nervous as I felt. I told her our discovery story and she was good, she had me completely at ease very quickly. The she looked down to the other end of the couch, "Now, Noah, I have to tell our viewers that I have seen pictures of you from about two years of age until your senior graduation picture from last year. Your grandmother is our amazing wardrobe mistress Ruth Mayzer, I can only imagine how proud she must be of you and your almost meteoric rise to fame."

"Actually," Puck returned with a wry grin, "I think she may be prouder of the fact that I not only graduated high school, but I made it into college. To be honest until these two and I came together, it was pretty touch and go."

"So how did the three of you become, I believe the correct term is, a triad?" She asked us.

Sam told her the story of our junior prom, even mentioning Rachel and Jesse St. James by name. Anyone watching could tell which one of them he preferred. He didn't name Lauren specifically. "And in April we'll have been together for three years."

"So tell me more about KAMA and Necessity 4 Existence." Robin asked after cooing just a little at Sam's sweet and funny retelling of our origins story.

"Well Kama is a Sanskrit term meaning desire, wish or longing. I have been wishing and hoping and longing for someone who saw me, really saw me, since I hit puberty. Sam has been wishing and hoping and longing for a love as deep and abiding as that of his MeMaw and Grandpa and mother and father since he was old enough to know what love was. Noah has been wishing and longing and hoping for a place where he felt completely, wholly accepted for himself. Sam's dad calls that a heart's home…Together we fulfill each of our hopes and dreams. So KAMA seemed to fit. As far as the title of the album, it was our debut album, so we wanted it to be memorable as the tracks, we wanted it to mean something and to reflect who we are." I answered.

Sam continued. "The tracks themselves represent the fusion that we are musically, culturally, ethnically. I'm country, Puck is rock, Mercy is rhythm and blues, though honestly I haven't heard a song our girl couldn't sing. Our music is all three, sometimes one track is just one genre, sometimes it's all three."

Robin smiled in a way that told me that might come back to bite me in the butt later. "You mention your divergent styles…"

I shook my head. "I don't think any of us are as one dimensional as that made it seem. I mean, Sam likes country and you hear the twang every time he opens his mouth, but the first song he ever learned to play was ‘Grandma's Hands'. Noah is Queen and the Rolling Stones and Guns-n-Roses, but he can do Sinatra and Bennett in such a way that you'd never believe that he'd ever even heard KISS. In my house growing up, of course there was Aretha, Whitney, Michael, and Prince…but there was also Melissa Etheridge, Tracey Chapman, the Judds and K D Lang. Anyone who claims that they love music and want to do this as a career has got to be more than just one genre."

"You did not mention a single artist that I don't love." Robin nodded. "It is true that the most successful musicians seem to have very wide and varied musical tastes. You three are only nineteen and twenty…freshmen in college…what would you say to young people who wanted to become singers."

Noah fielded that one. "We had our record release party on Saturday night and we were honored by the presence of both Prince and Barbra Streisand. They gave us the best advice we could have ever gotten. Learn to read and write music. Learn to play as many instruments as you can. Compose your own music and write your own lyrics. Surround yourself with people you can trust, and honestly trust, not you know the ones who say you can trust them…because if someone has to say the words ‘You can trust me' you really, really can't. Hell the last time I said them it resulted in the birth of our daughter. Be willing to put in work and to work hard. And like Mercedes said don't limit yourself. Being boxed in has never created art."

Robin looked at her cards. "You have a daughter?"

Puck blushed. "Well, technically, I have a daughter. She was born when her mother, Quinn, and I were sophomores at McKinley. She was adopted by a wonderful woman in an open adoption and when we're home she spends as much time as she can with us. In fact, she is probably at the Jones house right now because Beth would completely kidnap Cede's little sisters and Sam's little brother if she could. Like I said, I told her mom that she could trust me, but back then I couldn't trust me. I love her and I am so glad that she is in this world. But I wish that she could have come later on in life…when I was more able to be her dad."

The interview wrapped up pretty quickly after that. Then it was a mad rush to get from Times Square to Lincoln Center. There was more hair and makeup, light and airy and breezy for both to go with the Felicity and Coco strapless neon print maxi dress I wore with a Crop Denim Jacket, and Icarus inspired, blue, jellie wing sandals. Sam and Puck were both in jeans and tight pull overs, Sam's was blue and Puck's was purple. The Live with Kelly and Michael interview as easy. We talked about how we liked living in New York. We talked about how we'd written every track except ‘Rescue Me', we talked about Sam and Puck's exercise regimen…Michael's beat theirs hands down. Then it ended up talking about football and how Sam and Puck each felt about not being on the field anymore. 

We were done with Kelly and Michael by noon and so we had the whole afternoon to sightsee and chill and play with the crew. Wednesday, we did the Today show before day in the morning, then we did an in studio interview with the Elvis Duran morning crew. That was a laugh riot and I'm not sure that Puck was the biggest hit. He got along with the crazies there like a house on fire. That afternoon we went and hung out with Angie Martinez and I geeked out like a little girl. It was almost sad it was so funny. Finally I just muttered, "I met Missy Eliot, and now Angie Martinez…I remember Ladies' Night…it was awesome, of course I'm geeking out…you would too." Someone created a gif and a vine of me looking up and mentally rewatching ‘my little self’, which was actually a picture of Neisha Reynolds who played little Lillian in ‘SongBird', watching the video …both of which went viral. They were pretty funny.

Santana uploaded them to our twitter feed and Tony or Gina added them both to our official webpage, giving credit to the original artists, of course. Thursday morning we were in hair and makeup for our CBS This Morning interview. We knew that it was going to be the most difficult of all because, there wouldn't be any soft questions, or even any hard questions that we could get out of answering by being charming. Charlie Rose was hard core and while most people dismissed Gayle King as just Oprah's bestie, she hadn't gotten where she was without being both tough and smart. Then there was Norah O'Donnell who often came across as nice…but she had hung in with the other two for longer than anyone else, and she was the main one who constantly redirected people back to the point of her query when they tried to avoid answering. We woke up early and prepped for that one for an hour in our bedroom as we packed, before we headed; by ourselves, CBS This Morning doesn't do a studio audience; to CBS's west fifty-seventh studio.

We went pretty conservative for the interview. Sam was in a deep gray Brooks Brothers suit with an ice blue shirt and swirly tie. Puck had picked a simple navy suit from Ralph Lauren, he'd paired it with a cream colored shirt, but left off the tie, because it was too early for one in his mind. Since it was the first day of spring I wore a lovely deep teal, Maggy London, 'brushed rose' placed print ponte midi dress that would have looked good in church or in an office. Navy blue, Casadei, suede blade-heeled pumps gave me a boost of both height and confidence. And the small button earrings that played up the print of the midi dress and my platinum cross and engagement ring completed the look. The makeup artist checked out what I was planning to wear and gave me a nice, office or day meeting appropriate makeup. My hair was down in rolling waves, but pulled back at the temples. Since they showed their green room, we were on camera for a while before we were directed to join them at the tall table and chairs. We were arranged at Gayle's side with me in the middle, Puck on my right and Sam on my left, it was sort of backwards but would show correctly on the screen. Ms. King, Mrs. O'Donnell and Mr. Rose arranged in a loose arch around the other two sides of the interestingly shaped glass table.

After the usual pleasantries, Mr. Rose started in. "Mercedes, when interviewed, you've been very vocal about having been bullied about your weight. You've spoken out about positive body image and that beauty is about far more than a number on a scale. How do you respond to your critics who say that being obese is a health risk and you shouldn't be advocating against weight loss?"

"I would say that in America, we have this false belief that every human being was meant to be thin. Whether you believe in a higher power or in pure evolution that is an easily refutable idea. Humans come in a wide variety of shapes, sizes and colors. In fact it is our differences that make us special. Do I advocate for people to love themselves no matter what their shape and size…yes I do. By the same turn I also advocate for people to pursue good health…but they should do that in a way that works for them. Just looking at myself, my blood pressure is on the lower side of normal…my doctor stopped comparing me to the chart and uses a normalization of my own readings as my base. He has told me that if I ever got up to what is considered normal for others, he'd consider it too high for me. I have great breath control and lung capacity. I am flexible and my fasting blood glucose levels are always right around seventy-five to eighty mg/dl. I am healthy. I am not a size two or four. None of the women on my father's side of the family are. Now the women on my mother's side run significantly smaller…but when we have dance offs or any other rigorous physical activities, they are panting and sweating and, in a few cases, passing out while I'm still going strong." I answered honestly.

Puck picked up the argument from there. "America has got to let go of the idea that it is a good thing to be dying to be thin. That is a sick and sad way to live. Not to mention it creates a dangerous lack of self-esteem. I have seen chicks that were a size four lament their ‘fatness'. They were easy prey for guys like I used to be because they had no self worth. If you talked to their doctors, you'd probably hear that they were almost malnourished because they aren't getting the right nutrients. Should people eat large amounts of just fatty foods and live sedentary lifestyles? Of course not. But neither should they restrict their diets so much to attain a size that may never have been meant for them in the first place that they cannot get the things their bodies need to survive."

"And while we’re kind of on the subject, I have to say that we, as a society, have got to stop ridiculing pregnant women." Sam added. "I'm not a Kardashian fan. I'm not a Kimye fan…but I cannot stand back and listen to people making disparaging remarks about her weight when she is like seven or eight months pregnant. That is ridiculous. She is growing a whole nother person. It is a beautiful and amazing thing. Men sure as h-e-double hockey sticks can't do it, so none of us should be saying boo; and any woman who hasn't done it…you should all shut it too. Jeez." He grumbled.

Gayle King chuckled. "I happen to like Kim and Kanye, and I definitely agree with you on that one, Sam. I actually agree with all of you on the healthy versus a certain size argument. But Mercedes your detractors have pointed to the fact that you've lost a significant amount of weight in the last three years. They claim that you are changing for your lovers so what gives you the right to lecture on positive body image." The graphic showed a school picture of me junior year next to one of the promotional shots we’d taken in the previous semester.

I shook my head. "I have lost weight, but not to please these two. They asked me out the first time when I was a size twenty. It never mattered to them what my weight was. However, I found comfort in eating certain things. When I'd have a bad morning at school, I'd eat an entire plate of greasy, fatty tater tots and tons of sweet ketchup. That wasn't healthy. When I would let the bullies get to me in the afternoon, I'd go home and eat something even worse. I don't like to admit how weak I was, but I'll be honest, there is only so much support even the best parents can give against outside forces like school bullies. Especially when those bullies seem to be supported by every magazine and TV show. I likened it to hearing voices telling me that I was beautiful and special but everyday those voices, my own and my family's, they would get drowned out by all the ones telling me that I was too fat and too dark and too much of everything that society says is ugly to be beautiful. Then these two convinced me to give them a chance. And their voices joined mine and my family's…I have support from people who don't have to love me, they just do. I have support from great friends…some of whom used to be some of the voices telling me that I wasn't good enough. But they admitted to me that they were just trying to tear me down to shore up their insecurities. It shocked the hell out of me that the two girls who were in constant competition for home coming and prom queen had insecurities…that changed my whole outlook. Now I don't need food for comfort. I don't need it to caulk up the cracks in my self-confidence…there aren't any anymore. So without eating tons of empty calories, yes I have lost weight, but I lost weight because I loved myself more. I didn't love myself more because I lost weight."

Sam and Noah both wrapped their arms around me. Sam looked up at the Charlie. "Women aren't the only ones who have body image issues that need support and love. Mercedes and Noah have helped me immensely I'd probably be completely mano-rexic if they hadn't supported and loved me through it. I'd been a cute kid, popular and into sports, but thanks to teachers who didn't realize or couldn't realize that I had a learning disorder, I thought that all I had were my looks. I cannot tell you how often I heard the words ‘thank God you're pretty'. I became kind of obsessed with making sure that I kept up the only thing I thought I had going for me. By the time I joined the New Directions I was counting calories and working out way more than I probably should have. I may have looked good, but half the time I couldn't see it. I had to learn to love myself every bit as much as Mercedes did. She helped me every bit as much as Puck and I have helped her."

It was funny because I think the CBS morning reporters were all looking at Noah for a similar admission. He shrugged. "I guess that I could lie and create some body issues on my part. But I never really had any. I’m pretty freakin’ awesome. I will say that women are supposed to have curves, some less intense than others. But I've been calling Cede Sexy Mama since tenth grade. Even when the bullies were clowning her in the halls, they were groaning over her curves in the locker room. One of the worse of her bullies used to hit the showers after the French class he shared with her…like every single day. If he'd been man enough to go after what he wanted, instead of worrying about what others thought of him, maybe he'd be…naw, me and Sam would still be sitting here with Mercedes. He'd have stood no chance."

There was a commercial break where we all sat and chatted about the differences between the way men and women deal with body image issues. When we came back from the break, it was officially Gayle's turn. "You all recently cemented your commitment to each other with an exchange of ring. The video of that exchange was posted online by a former friend of yours and went viral. It has faced vast amounts of criticism from the right wing media and from religious organizations. Why are you three so willing, not just to have such an unorthodox relationship, but to be so forthcoming and forthright about it?"

Puck handled this from the jump off. "Why should we hide it? As much as these two mean to me, the world is lucky I haven't climbed Mount Everest just to yell it out from the highest point on the planet. I don't think that love, real love, can be hidden. Not without being damaged."

"The person I am now, I wouldn't hide a relationship with either of the men by my side…why would I hide it just because it is the three of us. I'm not trying to be flippant. I know that there are many who will never agree with our love, but our families support us. Our friends support us…our fans don't care one way or another." I answered thoughtfully. "Abraham Lincoln said that ‘you can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.' The same is true of pleasing people. In the words of the poet Edgar A. Guest…‘I have to live with myself'. So I need to please me. As long as I can do that within the guidelines that were established in my bible by the Christ…then I believe that I am living a right life and I am happy. I won't say that I cannot live without Noah and Sam, but I can say that it would be a greatly diminished life."

Sam took the gloves off. "I've never understood why it is so many folks who call themselves Christians feel the need to interject themselves into other people's relationships. One day, the three of us will face our maker. Since our parents support us, He is the only one that I'm gonna worry about. The rest of these people they are living their lives like the Lord gave them the right to tell everyone else how to live when they aren't living right. I know it is impolite to name names so I'll just say that you know who you are, if you've got time to talk about me and mine, you might wanna make sure your own house is spic and span first." Sam completed our feelings on the subject.

"But you are in the public eye, you are putting yourselves forward as role models, what about the message that your relationship sends to children?" Norah asked, while her question was definitely severe, her voice conveyed mild curiosity at best.

"My message to children is to love and value yourselves, respect your parents and yourselves and work hard to achieve your dreams. Beyond that my morality was established by my faith in God and by the examples my parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles put before me every day. I didn’t grow up completely sheltered. I watched movies, some of them horror movies. I watched music videos. I read entertainment magazines and even the gossip rags; if there was some behavior in there from an artist or actor I idolized that went against what I learned from my family, my mother and I would talk about it. We would walk through why they may have made the choices they made and why it went against what I felt was right and wrong. We talked about what could have been done differently, what other choice they could have or should have made. I do believe that musicians and actors and athletes are an influence on kids and teens, there is no way they can avoid it. I just don't think we can or should be the primary influence on any kids not our own." I told her honestly. "We don't advocate that a polyandrous relationship is right for everyone or even that everyone run out and try a polyamorous relationship. We will tell everyone that love is the only thing that the more you give; the more you have to give. We love each other. We are not causing harm to anyone at all."

"But, you and Sam both identify as Christians and Noah as a Jew, it is against your religions to have this type of relationship, correct?" she pressed.

"I understand that the only reference to a situation similar to ours in the New Testament was in a letter from Paul to the Romans. Paul wrote many letters, and to be honest with you, even when I was little I noticed that often what Paul said in his letters contradicted the words of Christ. In fact I think Paul was the first to preach hate in the name of Jesus Christ." Sam said quietly. "It was Paul, not Christ who spoke against homosexuals. It was Paul, not Christ who says that only God can forgive. Christ says that we should forgive each other and only by forgiving each other can we in turn be forgiven. Heck, Paul preaches against having mercy, but Christ teaches that blessed are the merciful."

Puck was even blunter. "As far as the whole ‘thou shalt not commit adultery'…we are not committing adultery. We are together, our loyalty and faithfulness belongs to each other inside this relationship. You cannot tell me that the bible considered having a harem adultery, I know that that wasn’t present in the Talmud. I think in this case people ascribe their own meaning to the words of the Talmud and the Bible. Marrying multiple people without their knowledge and love and acceptance and the marriage being amongst equal partners, that goes against God's law. Marrying multiple people is illegal. We are not legally married under the laws of the United States. What we are, what we firmly believe is that we are married in the eyes of Yahweh, we understand that it cannot be sanctioned under the US laws and we aren't asking for special treatment or circumstances. We are just asking other people to butt out of our love."

I tried to be more diplomatic. "I don't believe that my faith in God precludes me from loving Sam and Noah. I believe that God would be far more disappointed in me if I allowed my love for them to be halted or harmed by the stumbling blocks others try to put in our path for having what is meant for us. God is love. His love for his children endureth forever. God is the creator…there is nothing on the face of this earth that He doesn't mean to be here. Satan is the destroyer; he can harden hearts and cause people to go against God's words. He can tempt…but he cannot create." I was candid and honest.

They had to go to commercial, and our time was up so they thanked us profusely. The stage manager led us back to the back. As they went back from the commercial doing their usual chatter, Charlie Rose and Gayle King were saying how much they had liked our album, when suddenly the stage manager stopped us and said. "We need you to go back out for the next segment. Is that okay?"

We looked at each other and nodded and before we knew it we were back at the table. Gayle was smiling hard as hell. "While we were speaking before, the MTV Movie Awards nominations were announced. It has already been announced that Jill Scott and Mercedes Jones and KAMA as a whole would be among the performers. We were just informed that ‘SongBird', a moving starring Jill Scott and our guest from the last segment was among the nominees. Jill Scott was nominated for Best Female Performance. ‘Who We Are' performed by Jill Scott and Mercedes Jones was nominated for Best Musical Moment, and Mercedes Jones herself was nominated for Breakthrough Performance."

They whipped the camera around to face us, and I know I looked Crazy. I was caught between crying and laughing. Puck was straight up celebrating. Sam was pumping his fist in the air. It took a second for me to even hear Norah congratulate us and ask me how it felt. "Wow, I'm not even sure what to say. I need to call my mom." I giggled uncontrollably. "I'm sorry; I never expected to…I never thought that this could happen. I don't even know what to say. I feel like there almost have to be more talented people they could have nominated for Breakthrough Performance than me…but I am so grateful for this. Just Wow."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To Whom It May Concern,
> 
> This was actually me trying not to be overly detailed...No really I did.
> 
> It didn't work very well. I'd say I was sorry, but I like this chapter anyway.
> 
> Avid readers, in Chapters 16 A&B I started telling you about the people they would be interviewing for their Talent Manager and Booking Agent.  
> After the interviews which will (hopefully) be in Chapter 18, you will have the opportunity to chime in with your opinions on the prospectives and help me decide which ones are the best fit.
> 
> Thought I'd give you a heads up before I begged you to tell me who you liked best.
> 
> Please remember to tip your waiters, and review your authors.  
> TTFN,  
> Anni


	19. Sing, My Father's House, Remember the Times, Let Me Blow Ya Mind

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *****PLEASE NOTE: If I am using an actor or musician as a face claim, they do not exist as their famous persona in this universe. IE: Darcy Lewis is a person so Kat Dennings doesn't exist. Or Hiram Berry is a person so Jeff Goldblum is not.*****  
> ****THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!****  
> Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories:  
> Isis Aurora Tomoe You are the most awesome Beta ever. Thank you for being such a help in my time of need!!!!

Sing (Ed Sheeran)  
Sam PoV

We were seriously floating on a huge ass cloud as we ran back tothe house and gathered all our friends, the band and all their stuff and all our stuff and made it to Newark for our flight to Las Vegas. Because of the tight schedule for the day, and the impromptu second interview with the CBS This Morning team, there was no time for us to change clothes or even for Mercedes to change her shoes. Thank goodness that we made it to the airport in time to check our luggage and get through security without a problem. Another blessing was the deal we'd gotten on the sixteen first class tickets and the twelve coach seats we'd purchased, but Saul assured us that fifteen of those tickets were covered under business travel expenses and Deborah reminded us that anything spent on us or the band was mostly reimbursable under the promotions clause of our contract. It was weird to be flying first class. The only ones of us who knew what they were doing were Santana and Blaine, so we all just kind of followed their lead. After security check, where we had to surreptitiously fill requests for more than one autograph, we made our way to the gates. But Santana and Blaine didn't stop at the regular gates…well not completely. Santana had a quick chat with Xena and the rest of our crew and they stopped there, but the NDs went on a special first class lounge nearby.

The lounge was really nice. There was free food, free drink and wi-fi. There were some deep comfy benches that stood up to me and Puck tormenting Mercedes with long meandering kisses and naughty whispers of what we were going to do to her when we got her alone. The wait wasn't hugely long, but there was a decent shower room where Mercedes could finally change out of her form fitting dress and into a less restrictive, very pretty lavender maxi dress with a cute little jean jacket over it. Her heels were traded for wedges that gave her about four inches of height and let her poor abused tootsies breathe. The flight boarded right on time, and we made quick work of stowing our carry-ons in the assigned bins. We were all seated together, by couple…or thruple as the case may be, though in first class the seats were only two in a row. But as soon as the seatbelts sign went off, I joined Puck and Mercedes in their row. 

The blankets were nice and we were able to make out a lot. It was too bright in the later morning light to do anything more than that. Plus the flight wasn't super duper long and we were still riding high on the news of the nominations. All sixteen of us were fielding calls from our parents and siblings. then when her Jones aunts, uncles and cousins couldn't get through to Mercy, they'd call me or Noah or Quinn. On top of that Mercedes, Noah and I were fielding calls from our Warner team and Jill and the other industry people who needed to talk to us at that exact time. Okay so, probably the only reason we didn't use those first class seats to join the mile high club was because we were kept hella-busy for the entire five hour flight. 

The luggage situation was interesting. We had to check like twenty five pieces and waiting on them to all come off the conveyer belt was an exercise in pure patience. Finally they were all present and accounted for and we headed to the car fleet that had been arranged on our itinerary. Loading up and getting to the hotel was fun as hell. We spent way too much time singing our asses off. It reminded me of the trip from JFK to our hotel junior year. It was awesome. We were staying overnight at the MGM Grand. Apparently most of the hotels on the strip didn't allow for anyone under twenty-one to stay there without being accompanied by an adult…because of the casinos. We had gotten the band one of the single bedroom deluxe suites and asked them to pair up since it was just over night. They were cool with that. Dam-Dam, Mercy’s nickname for the brothers had caught on really quickly, were even nice enough to offer to let Vince crash in their room so he wouldn't have to be by himself, but we couldn't decrease the number of rooms or we'd lose the twenty percent off each room discount Puck had talked them into. And the difference was a hell of a lot more than we'd save losing the one room. 

We left Newark at eleven thirty; we landed before five east coast time and checked in around a quarter to three local time. We didn't have to be at the Bellagio until ten of six. Celebratory shower sex was had by all. Since she couldn't get her hair wet before we went over to do Howard Stern's show. So instead, I had Mercy lean her back against Puck's chest as I knelt on the smooth stone floor of the shower. I lifted the solid weight of her thick, smooth thigh over my shoulder and licked and sucked at her pretty little pussy until I was rewarded with her screams bounding through the massive bathroom of our suite. Then we held her between us and fucked her until all she could do was beg. Then we finally pitched her into the abyss and followed her over the edge. After we got out, dried off, lotioned up, Puck and I threw on some pants…Puck's jeans would have made Anika die…they looked like they were as old as Sarah…I had found an awesome pair of black cargo pants and some shoes. I grabbed a black s'medium graphic tee that had silver lettering and read ‘Always Be Yourself! Unless You Can Be BATMAN! Then Always Be Batman!' I loved it. Even Puck thought it was cool. His shirt was white with the silhouette of Bob Marley in black. 

By the time we were dressed, Mercy had her hair refreshed and her makeup applied so she looked so beautiful and yet natural with her big, lush lips all glossy, she was standing at the closet in a sexy black and teal lace bra and tiny thong set. As we waited, we watched her fight her way into a pair of stretch leather leggings. Shit, I'd cum in the shower but I was way more than half hard before she had them all the way up. Puck sighed. "God, Sexy Mama…as hot as that was we've gotta get the lead out. It's five thirty."   
She tossed on a long black tank top that came down over her ass over that she tossed a sheer tunic with snake skin looking print slithering along the bottom hem in white and gray. She shoved her feet into black suede and snake skin booties that left her toes and heels bare but covered the rest up to and over the bottom of her leggings. She managed to throw her stuff into a different purse and get us out to the lobby all while texting with Kurt and the gang. They were waiting on us and we were literally exactly right on time for our miccing for the Stern show. I probably should have been concerned by the smirk and smile on Howard's face when he greeted us. What followed was probably the most fun interview ever. Howard had a picture of our reactions on CBS This Morning when they told us about the MTV noms. Mercy looked amazing, her smile was big, bright and beautiful. But me and Puck looked crazy. Shock and surprise warred with joy on each of our visages. 

They picked on us about that. Robyn teased Mercedes about the way she was walking in when we got there. Howard had a blast telling everyone that we all looked ‘completely blissed out’, and he pointed out that we didn’t do drugs and we couldn’t drink which left only one reason we’d look so very chill and happy at the same time. Quinn owed Puck a hundred bucks because he sure as hell asked Howard and his listening audience why everyone was so interested in exactly how we made love to each other. The common consensus seemed to be that we were hot and we were therefore good masturbation fodder. It was a fun hour of interviewing with them and answering probing questions about our sex lives. Once again Puck shined in his natural element. If ‘Boning Adjacent’ became Howard’s favorite phrase from our first Howard Stern interview, then the one from the second was uttered in response to a caller’s request for our favorite sexual position. “Cede is into yoga. We totally repurposed downward facing dog, you don’t even know awesome that is.” 

After the interview wrapped up, the entire lot of us, band members, dancers, and New Directions went to dinner together at the Bellagio's world famous buffet. There was a total feeding frenzy. Once we were full and happy, the over twenty one set headed into the casino to get there game on. Which meant that the band and dancers dipped while Justin stuck with us. We headed to New York New York and rode their roller coaster, which wasn't very fast but it was still pretty cool. The Shark Reef aquarium was totally epic. I loved the hammer head sharks. After that we lost time in the Pinball Hall of Fame. It was like twelve thirty when we got back to the hotel room. Mercy sent out a quick text reminding everyone that we needed to be at the airport by eight thirty. And we made love before finally crashing hard. 

We were all some bleary eyed Mo-fos on the flight from Vegas to LA. Because of the time we got there versus when we needed to be at the studios where The Talk was filmed, we elected to fly dressed for the show. Which wasn't so bad for me and Puck, we were each wearing a pair of slacks and he was in a black button down shirt with the sleeves rolled up. My own shirt was a cool, deep blue, burnout-effect t-shirt Mercy had found for me at Barneys. It had long sleeves but it was light weight enough that with them pushed up, I was good. Poor Mercy, however, she was wearing a pair of high waisted shorts with sharp pleats. She was very uncomfortable sitting on strange seats in shorter shorts. But both Puck and I were in love with the way they showed off her legs and ‘dat ass. Her top was pretty comfortable, I assumed. Where the shorts were black, her top was very, very red. It had a weird panel on the front that was made to look reptilian, but the back and sides were smooth. It had a boat neckline and regular tank shape, so she was good on the whole bra and panties front…so I guess it wasn't too uncomfortable. Other than her ring and cross she had her other accessories in a big ass tote bag. Like even her heels…she was wearing a pair of sporty flip flops. The studios had sent a car service to drive us all to Studio City. So we drove straight there with all of our stuff. 

We got there with a couple of minutes to spare. We met all the ladies of The Talk, and the producer explained that we'd be sitting at the table but not really together. We'd be sitting with the ladies separating us. Puck laughed and threw his hand up in the air. "Oh, I call Aisha." 

"NO!" Mercedes and I both shouted. "No, offense meant at all, but we've see your standup, you and Puck next to each other is as much trouble as putting Sam next to Mrs. Sharon."

"What's the worry there, Dearie?" Sharon Osborne asked with a chuckle. 

Puck rolled his eyes. "Sam does impressions. He is very proud of his Ozzy. Trust me when I say, nuff said. But why can't I sit next to Aisha. She is awesome."

"Thank you." She laughed. 

"Yeah, she is totally awesome, but she is also naughty." I pointed out. "This is daytime TV…PG is the worst you can get away with. Don't feel too bad, we'd have had the same reaction if you'd called Ms. Sheryl too."

Sheryl Underwood laughed for a full minute. "Naw, I heard him on Howard Stern, I know that he and I can chill back stage, but I would be a bad influence on him out there." She admitted. 

Julie Chen laughed and talked us through the questions that they would be asking. It was kind of a milder, gentler version of Howard Stern's questions. All of a sudden all our phones went crazy. There were calls and texts and emails from our friends at Warner. Then there were some from our industry friends too. "Umm. Ladies, I'm sorry, but I think we need to take these calls." Puck said. "The other morning, our phones were completely blown up when we got off the set. I can just run and call Lyor or Deborah back. It won't take me but a second. "

"Sure, not a problem, maybe the news will be just as good." Sara smiled gently. I had totally grown up watching reruns of ‘Roseanne' so I was pretty damn proud of myself for the fact that I didn't once called her Darlene. 

Puck excused himself and went and answered his phone. He really was only gone for ten minutes and when he came back in he was seriously cheesing. Ms. Sheryl looked at him and smiled herself. "Man, it must have been some damn good news. You gonna share or what?" 

He smirked and held up his phone. "That was Deborah…Necessity for Existence dropped on Tuesday. We already knew that the over nights were pretty boss." 

"Yeah, we hit over two hundred thousand units sold in stores." I mused wondering where he was going with all of that. 

He nodded happily. "And according to the numbers that Deborah just got from Lyor…as of the reports that were submitted for Wednesday and yesterday, we're now at five hundred sixty-two thousand, seven hundred and thirty eight units sold in stores."

"Holy fuck." Both Aisha and Ms. Sheryl breathed. Comedians often sold albums, so many of them understood inherently what that meant.

Sara just started to giggle. Her wife was a musician, so she definitely understood what those numbers meant. 

Mrs. Sharon crowed, "Congrats that is…that is truly wonderful news." 

"Your debut album was certified gold in its first week in stores. That is amazing. Can we announce that on the air?" Julie asked 

Me and Mercy were still a little stunned, so Puck handled it all for us. It seemed like we blinked after hearing the words certified gold and we were in hair and makeup. We came out of our shock around the time Puck started laughing his ass off. Apparently he felt that the level of our surprise had grossly outweighed that necessitated by the news. College had done us both good, because he said it like that and I didn't have to ask him what any of it meant. It was with that extra confidence that we headed out onto the set as our names were called by Julie Chen. I took my seat at the huge wooden table between Ms. Sheryl and Sara, Noah sat between Sara and Mrs. Sharon and Mercy took a seat between Mrs. Sharon and Aisha. The interview wasn't long and focused more on our personalities and how we were finding ‘sudden' fame. Aisha actually got Noah to blush. "So, Puck…I think a large number of people saw the video of you singing in the shower at Columbia. Your endowment was even analyzed by a couple of photography students at UCLA."

He shook his head. "Aisha, that wasn't the best representation of my ‘endowment'. I mean Sexy Mama and Sam were nowhere nearby." Noah blushed fiercely. It was hot as hell.  
Aisha smiled. "They took that into account. Now…their analysis seemed to agree that your endowment is quite impressive when it is putting its best self forward. So I guess the question is…will you share with us the real size of your…well you." 

"Umm, you know I'd be game, but it doesn't really belong to me anymore." He said cheekily. "You'll have to ask Cede and Sam-I-Am if they are willing to share that with you."

The audience both loved and hated that answer. We wrapped up the interview really soon thereafter. I mean there wasn't going to be anything that could top it. After we left there, we had plenty of time to kill before we had to show up for our next taping. We finished filming at two and our check in time was three. Puck put forth the idea of taking a scenic route to the hotel. But the drivers quickly explained to us that every route would be scenic in that it would be miraculous if we didn't end up taking an hour to get half way there. So we headed to get checked into our rooms at the Four Seasons. On the ride there, we tried to decide what we wanted to do for the evening. We didn’t have to get to the Chelsea Lately taping at Universal Studio until ten, so we needed to fill four or five hours. The girls wanted to go shopping on Rodeo Drive, the guys wanted to go to Venus Beach. The arguing back and forth via text messages lasted until we got to the hotel and Noah, Mercy and I could hear them bickering back and forth as we got the twenty eleventh floor superior balcony room keys for all our friends and our band members. Because we'd booked so many rooms, they'd come with a fifteen percent discount and they gave us our California suite on the same floor with our friends, for the original per night cost of one of the regular rooms. 

Mercy took charge of passing our room keys. Each of the band members got their own room and those were easy because each little placket only had one key inside it. The only person who might get the ‘wrong' key would be Vince, because he was the only one of our friends that was all by himself. The rest of the keys were in sets of two or three. She kept all of that straight and had the right keys in the right hands in a couple of seconds, seemed like. Suddenly Tina started hopping and smiling. "I mapped it all out. We're less than fifteen minutes from Rodeo Drive. Then we can hit Venice beach, then we can hit the Walk of Fame, maybe have dinner near there then go to the studio from there. If traffic cooperates we'll only lose an hour to travel time which still gives us about an hour at each place." 

That became the plan, we got our stuff into our rooms, packed a bag with our stuff for later and headed down to the lobby. Tina was a logistical genius. We had time at all the hotspots. We strolled down Rodeo Drive, and maybe we sang. But you try walking Rodeo Drive without hearing Barret Strong's ‘Money, That's What I Want' in your head. It just happened to also come out of our mouths. Followed soon thereafter by the song that had to have been written as its anathema Macklemore's ‘Thrift Shop'. Santana was the perfect Zsa Zsa for the sixties song about indulgent wealth. Then Vince and James tag teamed Macklemore's rap…man that shit was killer dope. Especially when James ended up calling Vince a ‘cold ass honkey' that was just hilarious. At first people seemed to think we were buskers, but then when they recognized Mercy, we got a little mobbed for autographs. You could see the native shoppers talking about the crazy tourists behind their iPhones and such. That just made it all better. 

Venice Beach was pretty awesome too. Lauren got into an arm wrestling competition with this dude there and she almost won. I mean, she had him good but then he realized that he was about to get his ass beat by a girl and redoubled his efforts. We took a boat load of pictures with passersby. It was completely awesome. The Hollywood Walk of Fame was way more expansive than one would think given the name. It was a total of fifteen blocks and had like twenty-five hundred stars on it. Totally awe-inspiring, totally undermining of our confidence in what we'd achieved so far, because hey these people were awesome and we're just some kids from Lima and Tennessee. But then a bunch of people recognized us so we decided that we'd fake it until we made it…because all of the people immortalized on the Walk of Fame had once just been some kids from their home towns too. 

Tina, our organizer, figured that if we skipped dinner, we would have enough time to run back to the hotel and grab quick showers since we were all sweaty and needed the refresh. Since we were pressed for time, we did our showers individually. Mercy went first, because she needed the most time to get herself ready. After my shower, I threw on a pair of straight leg Levis, and a shirt that read ‘I Like You, But If Zombies Are Chasing Us, I'm Tripping You'. I loved New York, you could buy the best tee shirts from street vendors there. I had gotten the one I wore that night for five bucks and an autograph for the vendor guy’s daughter. I was hoping that it would get seen by one of the Talking Dead producers…Puck and I wanted on that show so bad. Puck's was an actual authorized Walking Dead tee that read ‘I Slay Zombies…What You Got'. Yeah, we were that serious in our pursuit. While Puck and I had decided that Mercedes' verbal permission to wear whatever we wanted to wear for Chelsea Handler's interview, and possible impromptu performance, to further our quest, she decided to use it to show the world the Mercy we saw. When we got out of the shower, she was standing in the mirror adjusting her breasts in one of her pretty black bras that was mostly satin with lace along the bottom. This one pushed her beautiful, bountiful breasts up and turned them into cleavage that would make people of both genders walk into walls. She slipped on a pair of panties that matched. Then she pulled on a pair of jeggings that made her incredible ass look even better. A sexy, but totally simple black tank top went on next only to be covered by a sheer, floaty, floral print on black tunic top with a semi-demure V-neckline. I was a little bit surprised that she put on so much jewelry, bracelets; an open silver and CZ cuff on one wrist and a bunch of silver bangles on the other, on the other ring finger, the one that was not wearing her engagement ring, she slipped on a silver and black ‘cocktail' ring that looked like a snake climbing her finger, a silver and pink lucite necklace and earring set and a pair of hot pink suede platform heels and she grabbed her purse to head out the door. 

We weren't the last down to the lobby, but mainly because, well…Kurt. But we'd managed to only spend forty two minutes on the whole shower and change thing. That was actually pretty surprising since those bathrooms were a sight to behold. We made it to Universal Studios and to the taping studio for Chelsea Lately about then minutes late…we were still there before the host though so it felt fine. That was my least favorite of all the interviews we did that week. She spent the whole time basically trying to toss her desiccated ass at me and Puck and subtly insult Mercedes. Of course, Mercy was having none of that. She subtly insulted Chelsea right back, which amused Lavelle Crawford, who was way cool by the way, to no end. Suffice it to say Chelsea wrapped the interview up fairly quickly and we sure as hell didn't perform. We were done by midnight and since the earliest of our flights the next day weren't until eleven, we didn't really feel like heading back to our hotel rooms yet. 

Thankfully the lead driver, a really nice Armenian dude told us that he knew just the place to take us. Since we were in the same town as Blaine's brother and he was cool, Mercy told Blaine to send him a text to meet us at the club. He'd been able to make some connections at the drop party and he was grateful, plus he would have a free night at a club. He met us at The Arena. The club itself was great. It was filled with tons of younger people like us plus a lot of gay men and women who were just there to get their dance on without fear. It was pretty awesome. It was strange as hell that when we left the club there were papz waiting on us. At first I assumed that there was someone in there like Bieber or Selena Gomez, but I soon realized that we'd been spotted and they had been called in. Cooper Anderson was in absolute heaven. He got to be seen with up and coming music starts and it would only further improve his cache. I swear he made sure that every picture had him in it. And that we looked like the best of friends. Anyone else and that probably would have pissed us off, but he was Blaine's brother, so we let it slide. 

We were so tired when we got back to the hotel at three or four but after spending two or three hours bumping and grinding up on our girl, no way could Puck and I not make love to her. So it was like five before we finally showered and slept until we had no choice but to get up and get the lead out. We made it to the airport just in time to see Mike and Tina off for their like thirty minute flight to San Francisco. Bartana, Klaine and the band were the next flight, they were flying back into LaGuardia. Vince, Finn and Lauren's flight was loading pretty much the same time Quames and ours was so that was a pretty rushed goodbye. It had been one hell of a spring break. I would have loved to have more down time with our friends, but other than that. I wouldn't have changed it for the world. 

 

My Father's House (Bruce Springsteen)  
Mike PoV

Spring break was almost surreal. No, it was totally and completely surreal. We'd done tons of really fun stuff, and all of it was actually legal which was more than most of my classmates could say of their vacations. Of course, few of them had as many consequences from theirs as I had from mine. I hadn't been back in my dorm room from dropping Tina off at Berkeley, after spending one last night together in our usual room at the Fairfield Inn, for fifteen minutes when the phone started to ring. Nevel looked over at me. "He has been calling every few hours since I got back from Seattle."   
I glanced at the caller id and sighed. "Why didn't he just call my cell phone?" Nevel shrugged noncommittedly. I had asked the question but I knew the answer to it. He wanted to know when I got back to school. My phone wouldn't provide him with the proof as conclusively as the land line did. So he called until I answered. "When did he call last?"   
Nevel was a smart guy, he knew exactly what I meant. "He called around eleven." 

It was a quarter after one, I sighed as I grabbed the phone on its last ring. "Hello Father." I said simply. 

"You were on Entertainment Tonight. They mentioned you by name. You and your friends were on TMZ, in LA. What were you even doing in LA? You were in New York when they said your name on Entertainment Tonight. How are you going to get into a good medical school if you are trotting around the country with your little friends?"

"Well Father, given that even med schools are looking for well-rounded and well-traveled students I think that I will be just fine." I shocked us both by replying. "Even more since I'm not sure that I have any desire at all to go to medical school, or law school, all these experiences are helping me get familiar with the world I find more and more that I do want to be a part of."

I could literally hear my father's exasperated eye roll. "What has changed? At Christmas we'd reached an agreement that if I allowed you to continue to take those silly dance classes, you would continue to work towards medical school."

"How has anything changed? When we spoke of this at Christmas I said that science and medicine would be my fall back plan. They are still my fall back plan, but after working with Marko on ‘The Fighter' and on ‘ColorBlind' and spending this week talking with real dancers and learning from Rainbow…I am more sure than ever that I won' t need a fall back plan until I am at least forty. Then I can go to med school. Then I can be a doctor."

There may have been some paternal gnashing of teeth and a lot of swear words in Cantonese. Then the phone was pulled away from him and my mother was suddenly on the line. "Oh Michael, you looked so handsome on Entertainment Tonight and Tina's dress was so perfectly her…a beautiful mix of whimsy and fashion. Tell me all that you did over your break?" she asked happily. 

So I told her everything. Technically she already knew, both Tee and I posted everything to Twitter and Instagram…we took pictures everywhere we went and with as many famous people as we could…but I guess it was different for her to her it from me and to get my impressions and the decisions that I'd reached over the course of the week of travel and fun. "Mama, this week has shown me that I have strength I never knew I had. I'm more than Father's son. I want to dance forever, Mama. Rainbow, started as a dancer and then moved into choreography. She said that she will only dance for a couple more years and then transition into full time behind the scenes choreography. If I can work hard and graduate as soon as possible, I know that Sam and Cedes will find a place for me with them, or I can start to audition and I'll already have at least two videos on my resume, probably more because Puck can learn the dance moves okay from regular people, but Sam is almost hopeless. I literally had to walk him through all of them letting him mirror me until he got comfortable. You know he won't want to let a stranger know that. So Mercedes said that when they do videos where he has to actually dance, she is perfectly willing to fly me to wherever they are." 

"I saw them on The Talk, I just love Julie Chen. I had to call Danica just to tell her how happy I was for them. Your father bought every partner in his firm a copy of their CD." She sighed. "Your father is proud of you too. Mr. Ackerman held a dinner party for the senior partners and their wives…your father crowed on and on about you being in two of the most popular music videos out right now so much that poor Mr. Simpson almost wanted to muzzle him. Give him time. He still worries that your grandfather would be disappointed in him because he wasn't able to become a doctor. So he presses you to make up for what he feels is his own failure.” 

I shook my head. “He is a senior partner in the biggest law firms in Dayton, heck one of the biggest in the entire state of Ohio. I’m pretty sure that Zǔfù would be more than proud.” I argued back. "Besides, I am not Father. My choices should be and are my own."

"We know that. And believe me…every time your father sees an A in a science class he knows that you are a separate and distinct entity from him. It makes him proud, but it also makes him push. He also worries, so next time you and your friends are going to be flying hither and yon, please…for the sake of my sanity if not his, just text him and let him know that you are okay." 

"Sorry Mama." I blushed a little. "I'd been having so much fun, it didn’t even enter my mind that you guys might worry.” 

“My sweet, Hǎo háizi, it is okay. Now tell me, did you really stay at the Four Seasons? What were the rooms like?”

I told my mother all about the room at the Four Seasons and the one at the MGM Grand, she and Nevel listened in rapt attention. Finally I finished off with, "I wanted to live in those sheets. They were awesome and soft and they were more than worth whatever they cost. It was like they were the physical personifications of lullabies."

After I got off the phone it was a matter of unpacking and making sure that the few over the break assignments I'd had were fully completed and emailed to the appropriate professor. Showering was perfunctory without Tina to share it with. The bed was incredibly small and yet it was too big without her. There was a part of me that worried that I had managed to grow completely co-dependent on her in the ten days we'd spent in each other's pockets. But when I mentioned it to Nevel he laughed in my face. "So because you enjoyed being with her all the time for the break, you're suddenly worried that you're co-dependent rather than just being in love. Remind me to slap you later."

"Well when you put it that way it does sound pretty stupid" I agreed. I realized that we'd done a lot of talking about my week, but I knew nothing about his. "So tell me about your spring break."

"Well, after Sam, my Sam…not your Sam…after she tackled Adam Lambert to the ground and beat him with a butter sock, she and the crew came back to Seattle and since I'm your roommate, and we're getting along better, they let me come and help them with their special episode of iCarly. Well, Adam's management team sent him out to apologize on the show for trying to bypass them like they weren't important, because it didn’t just piss off Sam, it annoyed his fan base too…and I got to meet him."

"Well that's cool." I grinned. There was more to it. I could tell. He looked like he was itching to tell me, but felt he couldn't. "So…He isn't really my type, but other than the fact that he is clearly Caucasian, with the dark hair and those eyes, he is definitely yours."   
With one of those ‘gotta make sure we're all alone even though I know we are' head swivels, he finally admitted, "he is a cherry poppin' daddy. Mike it was like he could sense that I was an inexperienced virgin homo…"

And that meant… "So are you still inexperienced?" I finally prodded. 

"Not quite as inexperienced…not anymore. I finally understand why you don't care how much it costs to go and be with Tina every weekend. Just from the physical pleasure aspect, don't worry, I'm not going to go all ‘one time and now we're in love' on him."

"Was it full on sex or just like an exchange of oral?" I asked curiously. I knew that before we'd left for spring break Nevel had kissed exactly one guy, and that had been at a freshman mixer and there had been no fireworks at all. I felt bad for the guy. 

"Both." Nev giggled happily. "You can never tell your Sam that I went down on Adam Lambert in the iCarly studio. Carly Shay is full-blown OCD about things like that. And if you told your Sam, he would tell his cousin, who would so beat me half to death with her butter sock. Surprisingly, considering that it is a sock filled with butter, it is a very effective weapon."

We talked more about how he felt about what had happened. Mainly he was just happy to have had such a nice first time. We discussed the slight negative anticipation with which we viewed our return to classes the next day. I didn't remember falling asleep, but the next thing I knew I was waking to my blaring alarm. Classes were classes. We learned new things and reviewed old. My vigor for my education was still a little dampened, but I was very enthusiastic to get certain things done. Nevel asked me if I had thought more about getting a rental property so that we could take summer classes. I talked about it with Tina. Since most of our friends wouldn't be returning for the summer and we would actually be able to get better summer jobs where we were than we would at home, when you added in the fact that visiting our parents would not be terribly difficult, we were both leaning to finding the rental property sooner rather than later. 

 

Remember The Times (Michael Jackson)  
James PoV

I freaking loved the Jones Family Gathering. It was a family reunion, but at the same time, it was way cooler. They had it at a resort on Mackinac Island, and rather than being centered on dealing with family business or whatever, it was all about spending time with the relatives and catching up more than you really could in the regular family correspondence or phone calls. Quinn had been accepted into the loud and loving Jones family despite the fact that she didn't share their blood nor was she married to any of them. But because she was Mercedes' soul sister, she belonged to the rest of them just as firmly. By the time I was introduced to the Jones Family Gathering, Quinn was not just one of them, she was a Jones, lacking only the last name to make it official. Aunt Essie, was her staunchest supporter, and the most proud adoptive grandmother in the world. 

Essie Jones was also a completely terrifying woman who was strong and fierce despite being only around five feet tall and weighing less than a hundred pounds. When we arrived at Mission Pointe, we were the last ones to arrive. But everyone was cool with it because Mercedes and her guys were working and we were traveling with them. Plus too, they had just made it possible for most of them to meet some really awesome celebrities. Hell there was not a soul there that hadn't completely freaked out from meeting Prince. Uncle Steve had met him before and he was still all "Holy shit, its Prince". 

We checked in and I was more than a little surprised that Quinn and I were to share a room. Sam and Puck laughed at me. "They don't really bother with the whole separation of the genders at the gathering. They figure if the boyfriend or girlfriend is serious enough to get brought with the relative to the gathering, then chances are pretty good that they are already sleeping together." They explained. 

Then Mercedes joined us laughing. "Quinn, they put you next to us again this year." She handed us our room keys. "I'd say I was sorry, but I'm really not."

Quinn just shook her head. "Can you three not get physical without raining screams down upon your neighbors?"

Sam just shrugged. "Not when we're doing it right. Are you telling you that James has never gotten you to the point where everything feels so good if you didn't scream, you'd lose your mind?"

She blushed darkly. Quinn might play good girl but she understood exactly why our friends were so loud when they got down. "What are we supposed to be doing now?" I asked to change the subject before Puck could get in on the teasing. 

Mercedes texted her mother or someone and found the answer. "We need to take our stuff to our rooms and then meet the family in the Bistro on the Green. This morning the men went golfing and the women are probably not talking to each other anymore because they played croquet and bocce ball, and Jones women are hella competitive. They get evil when they lose." 

"So all of them are like you, Sexy Mama?" Puck taunted. 

Mercedes smacked him. "Shut it, smartass." 

Both Quinn and I took that as our que to dip. Our room was interesting. It had plaid carpet. I didn't even think they made plaid carpet. The bed was big and plush. For a change being in a room with a bed and Quinn made me less horny and more sleepy. Probably because we'd made love for a couple of hours after we'd gotten back to our other hotel room earlier that morning. "I could so use a nap." Quinn said almost as if she were reading my mind. 

But we were good and we headed to the restaurant near the links. As soon as we got there, Tessa, Jake and all the associated family members I knew well greeted us and grilled us on how the rest of our spring break had gone. Once we joined the rest of the family I was introduced around, meeting all the great uncles and aunts, all the cousins and kids. Then I was immediately separated from Quinn. She was welcomed into Aunt Essie's circle and I was shuffled over among Mercedes' great uncles. "So, Little Harvey boy, you're going to that Ivy League school what are you majoring in…what do you plan to do with all that fancy education? How are you going to take care of our little Quinn?" The eldest of the brothers asked me snarkily. 

"Sir, aren't you a teacher?" I asked. Apparently the question and answer period was only for him. "I'm not sure that Quinn needs me to take care of her. She is getting the same education that I am. She wants to major in law, and I was hoping to major in business management and computer programming. I would love to be the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs."

"Hell, if you can pull that off then I guess you might just be worthy of Quinn." Joseph Jones said with a smile. "Now to the actually important stuff, because you are right, Quinn doesn't need you to take care of her. She learned from that son of a bitch father and the pathetic, gator skin covered heart having, trick of a mother that she needs to be able to take care of herself. No, what we need to know is how you feel about the fact that there will always be a part of Quinn that will never be yours. She has a child with another man. They will always have a tie that no one can change or break. Doesn't that bother you? Most men never have to meet the guys who took their woman for the very first time. But Puck is gonna always be right there in your face. Can you handle that?"

I smiled. My own uncle had asked me that not long after he met the crew. "I can. It would be different if they had had feelings for each other…but I pretty much view it as Puck saved me from having to be the one who caused her the pain of her lost virginity. Besides, Puck loves Sam and he loves Mercedes. He isn't a threat to me and Quinn, and even if he wanted to be, Peaches has learned that being faithless is not the way to attain happiness." 

Alec Jones nodded but then his eyes met mine and a chill went down my spine. It may have sounded strange to someone else that I was, in that moment, scared of a man more than three times my age, and half my weight…but I saw something in his eyes that told me that he was definitely a man to be feared no matter how old or slender he was. "Are you a God fearing man, James?" 

"I believe in God, I don't think He wants us to fear him." I babbled. 

He smirked at me, but the chilling look in his eye didn't change. "Maybe you're right, maybe God isn't meant to be feared. But you know what? I am. So, I'll just tell you a simple truth. The first time I met Quinn, she had a look in her eyes that no child should ever know. MeDe started the process of removing it…now it is completely gone. As long as you keep that look from ever again shadowing that child, you don't have to fear me either…but, if it ever makes a reappearance, you'd better pray that you weren't the one to put it there. Do you understand me?"

"Yessir." I said quickly. I was sweating and found that I was grateful as hell that I hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. 

The final remaining brother smacked me on my shoulder. "Relax Boy, I’m not gonna lie and say that Alec is harmless…hell he is damn near the scariest soul I've ever encountered. He's my brother and I'd sooner have turned my back on a wild jackal than I would have startled him when he first made it back from Vietnam. But as long as Essie likes you, then you're fine. Sam and Noah lucked out last year. Bunny beat Alec to the punch on scaring them. Now…go and make good arm candy for Quinn. I think you young people are scheduled to do a bike riding tour of the island after lunch." 

I thought that would be the worst of the whole ‘we protect our own and Quinn is one of ours’ moments…but while the other twenty-five and under crew went on a bike tour of the island, Quinn and I walked with Aunt Essie talking and getting to know each other. I felt like I was in that conversation with the great uncles for about two and half hours. Estella Jones was a wonderful woman and she reminded me of my own grandmother, but she was not a woman I would ever cross. Her questions were deep, invasive and worst of all so subtle you couldn’t even be offended. On top of that, she had the boniest hands and they were hard too. When she laughed she, like her grandniece, liked to hit people. But Mercedes' hands were soft and didn't hurt near as bad. Still, by the end of the afternoon, when Que and I were released to join our friends at the spa. It was hilarious watching Mercedes and Peaches getting side by side foot rubs. They had been in stilettos every single day for an entire week. It probably felt even better to them than it sounded to their guys. 

That evening there was a big family dinner where the family gave gifts to the kids who were graduating high school or college. It was cool to see. I made note of it to tell Uncle Steve and Grandma. We should totally cop their tradition on that one. The second we made it back to our room, Peaches and I made love in the shower and then fell into the bed. Of course, we were awoken three times by our neighbors. Damn Mercedes is loud as hell. The worst part was that Puck was even louder. At one point there was this sound Cedes made that made me cum all over the both of us. It was weirdly erotic. Peaches cleaned me up, which started us making some pretty damn loud sounds of our own. 

The rest of our time with the Joneses was nice. It was fun to see how similar and yet how different black families, even those from the same region, could be. When we got back to Yale, things were very different. People who make it to Ivy League colleges aren't dumb. Many of them already knew about my girl's connection to KAMA. Hell, who didn't…so with Puck's comment on Good Morning America, it was soon common knowledge that Peaches had been a teen mom and put the baby up for adoption. The reactions were varied. Our roommates all rallied behind us and supported Peaches no matter what anyone else had to day. That douche bag Biff finally decided to find another WASP princess since Quinn was, in his pitiful, emotionally stunted opinion, tainted. There were a few chicks on campus who started trying to call Puck a rapist. Even went on twitter and everything. They were part of the on campus support group that was in place to support people who had been victims of sexual assault. Had they not been dragging our friend through the mud and possibly, in the future, creating a painful time of confusion for Beth, we probably wouldn't have had such a strong reaction…but they were and we did.

Quinn and I marched our happy asses into one of their group sessions. I allowed Quinn to speak since she was the one they identified with and the one they would be the most comfortable with. I was just there for moral support because Peaches knew she might end up talking about the actual rapes she had been subjected to. "Ladies, I want to thank you for what you are trying to do, but please stop. Puck is not a bad guy. He is not a rapist. He would never take a woman against her will. Back in the day I made a bad choice…but it was my choice. I have been in a situation where freely given consent was a foreign concept to the person touching me and trust and believe me when I say that Puck convincing me that it was okay to ‘bone without a jimmy hat' was certainly not a violation of my body, mind and spirit that being raped was."

"But you had to have been underage, you were a sophomore in high school." Someone called out from the group.

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Puck and I are classmates. He is only like seven months older than I am. If you want to call him a statutory rapist then so am I and so are most of the women of Lima, Ohio…because believe me when I say that his rep as a reformed bad boy is not contrived by the Warner PR people. He was amazingly good at sleeping with anyone who wanted him, and there were very few women who didn't want him."

Some of the girls looked like they were starting to understand. Some looked like they had understood all along but hadn’t been able to convince the rest that it was not what they were saying it was…and then there were the three chicks who were looking mutinous. "I don't understand why you are here defending that jerk. He slept with you…he didn't use protection…I'm surprised that he even called you or listened to you when you told him about the baby." A tall thicker girl with long blond hair said caustically. 

Quinn and I exchanged looks. "Puck is a good friend. You shouldn't talk that way about someone you don't actually know." Peaches finally told her. 

The taller blonde rolled her eyes. "You seem really sure that I don't know Puck. But I do. I met Noah Puckerman July two thousand nine…he seduced me in a club…told me I was beautiful. He made me feel special. I was a virgin. Then wham bam boom I wasn't anymore. I thought we were making love, but he called it boning…just like you said. I ran into him a few days later and he pretended like he didn't even know who I was." 

I knew I should have kept my mouth shut, but I couldn't keep the words behind my teeth. "He probably didn't know who you were."

"How could he not? We spent over an hour talking. He took my virginity." Her tone was so accusatory. "Then he treated me like I wasn't worth his time. And that black bitch he is with now, he's probably only with her because she is making him rich." 

Because you weren't. Thankfully I managed to keep that to myself. Peaches, however, was not one to let anyone insult her friends, and that broad had gone a bridge too far when she said something negative about Mercedes…I would have felt bad for her, but she kind of deserved it. "Look, I’m not usually one for slut shaming, two of my friends have always been pretty proud that they had sluthood down to an exact science. But let me repeat for you what we just heard you say and hopefully you will understand why I prefaced it that way. You met a random guy at a teen club, talked with him for a while then gave him your virginity after only having known him for less than a day. Did you realize that he was just visiting to spend time with his grandmother and uncle? No, because you knew nothing about him that he didn't need to share with you to get you to spread your knees. Once he'd fuck you, he didn't care about you anymore. When you saw him a few days later, he wasn't pretending, he really had no idea who you were, which was actually pretty lucky for you. Because if he had remembered, he'd have probably been even ruder. Now I'm sure that you're wondering how I can defend Puck…I can defend Puck because I know Noah Puckerman. I have been his friend for years…heck I was his friend for a couple of years before we ever had sex. You said that you thought you were making love with a guy you'd just met. Setting aside how incredibly naive that was, the Puck you met wasn't capable of making love. It took that ‘black bitch' as you just called my best friend and soul sister…it took her to teach Puck how to love any woman other than his mother, grandmother and Sarah."

"Who is Sarah?" the idiot blonde asked confused. "I thought your kid's name was Beth."   
One of the girls who had looked like she didn't want to start this mess to begin with scoffed. "Oh my God…you are an idiot. You all had us following the rantings of an actual, factual idiot. Sarah is his sister. Her name is on KAMA's website. It doesn't give her personals but in their bios, it gives the names of all their siblings. I thought that you were mad because you identified with Quinn, that some guy had forced you and you’d gotten pregnant and had to have an abortion or something…that you were really raped like the rest of us. But you're just pissed because you got played. Jeez Declan, you are one stupid ho." 

"And a jealous troll. I heard Mercedes in her CBS interview, she is honestly a good person. Of course Puck loves her. For you to stand there and say that he is only with her for a pay check is either jealousy or racism…but I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt." Another girl fussed. 

"Look Ladies." The faculty advisor from the psych department stated calmly. "This is still a safe zone. We can have discussions without judging each other. However, Declan, your comment about Mr. Puckerman and Ms. Jones relationship has no place in this discourse either. We are here to discuss our experiences with sexual assault and sexual exploitation. I am sure that we each have our opinions on what we learned here today, but we can all agree that what happened between Quinn and Mr. Puckerman, while perhaps not the best example of decision making, did not meet the criteria for sexual assault. Therefore, since you made your accusations public, you will need to make your retractions and apologies publicly as well."

Again most of the room was good with that, the Declan chick seemed very rebellious and I knew she wasn't going to cooperate easily so I decided then and there it was time for me to speak. "Ladies, I really hadn't planned on speaking today, I was just coming to support my girl as she discussed a subject that she finds painful. But the fact that Miss…Declan, is over there looking for all the world like she is going to continue to bad mouth Puck online and to anyone she meets, means that I need to address her and since she will not like what I have to say, I'd like all of you to act as witnesses." They quickly agreed and I was a little surprised at how amused the advisor was looking. "Now, Declan. Let me run down things from this point on. You have made Quinn Fabray's shit list because of the way you came out your neck about Mercedes Jones and about Puck. I'm sure that you are thinking that it's no big deal. You feel justified in feeling some kind of way about Puck when the truth is that Puck pulled a TI, he filled your space and forgot your face, because you allowed him to. However, for the last five plus years, you've been blaming him as if were solely at fault. As if you didn’t make a bad choice and thankfully it was with someone who didn’t leave you pregnant or give you a STD. Hell, knowing Puck like I do, you probably really enjoyed your first time, which few of the women in this room can say the same thing about. You've now taken this bullshit public. But the truth is that if you don't retract your comments and apologize for them, Quinn is going to tell the whole world the truth about what happened that night and about what you've been doing and saying today. When that happens, you are going to find that not only have you put yourself in a legally actionable place civilly meaning slander and liable…but also criminally, because given the fact that you are at least three grades ahead of us, you are the one who could be charged with statutory rape of Noah Puckerman, not the other way around. I can also say, very reasonably that you will push forward the male defense of ‘boffer's regret' rather than rape…because that is exactly what you are doing. Somewhere deep inside you have to know that Puck didn't sexually assault you. But you find it too hard to admit that you did something that you really shouldn't have done. Do not try and harm Puck's career. Do not add to the burden of proof that the male dominated society has made difficult enough on rape victims. If you give them a name and a face of a woman who has very publically and visibly cried wolf, you are going to make it that much harder for the girls and women who are truly raped."

I had said what I needed to say so I stepped back. I noticed that as I spoke the very real possible consequences of her actions, Declan's cluster of friends seemed to drop her like a bad habit. She was still looking stubborn but hopefully something I said will have gotten through to her. What Quinn and I had said quickly made it throughout the campus. There were a few people who decided that Quinn was somewhat of a traitor to her gender, but for the most part it put the worst of the rumors to rest and we were able to get on with our semester in peace.

 

Let Me Blow Ya Mind (Gwen Stefani & Eve)  
Mercedes PoV

Spring break freshman year was one of those vacations a person needed a vacation after. Unfortunately, Jill Scott had been keeping it strictly one hundred when she said we had quite a bit of time to wait before we'd be able to get a break. So we just kept working and moving. Given that we were interviewing for three positions, we actually had Anika and Deborah add lunch meetings on Monday, Wednesday and Friday was well. We were able to keep the schedule of the dinner meetings…meaning that those would still be dedicated to finding a talent manager and a booking agent, which would leave our PA interviews for lunches. The way they had gotten the candidates for our personal assistant was pretty traditional. They had posted ads on Monster, Career Builder and Indeed listing a wide variety of qualifications and being less than forth coming as to who they would be working for, just that the position was for a Warner Records artist. They accepted the first hundred resumes or CVs that were received and culled through those until they had them weeded down to just those who met every single qualification on the list. I was pretty proud of the list of qualifications that they had posted. According to the ads, we were looking for people who possessed excellent organizational skills, good written and spoken communication skills, a very strong attention to detail, a calm and professional manner. They would need to have the ability to carry out several tasks at the same time. We were hoping to find someone with great administration skills, and a flexible and adaptable approach to work the ability to use their own initiative tact and discretion, for dealing with confidential information not actually covered by the non-disclosure agreements they would have to sign. 

Every applicant needed to be able to work with both PC and Mac operating systems tech. They needed to be able to manage multiple calendars. They needed to be conversant with all modern grammar needs and they would have to be able to manage social networking and webpages. Anyone with a history in web or graphic design got bumped up immediately. Anyone with more than ten years of job history got bumped down immediately. We were hoping to find someone who was young enough that they wouldn't feel weird about working for two nineteen and a twenty year old. The one CV we received that came with a recommendation from Lauren was bumped immediately to the very tippy top of the list. 

We actually all knew that if she fit as well as Lauren said she would, she had the job, but Deborah, Christophe and Anika all had their favorites too, hence the lunches. We'd meet Darcy on Friday, that was the fastest she could get here from MIT, where she was finishing her last semester. We were totally cool with her starting in May. It wasn't like we were doing a hell of a lot other than school work and the MTV Movie awards before then any way. Which reminded me, I needed to find out from Jill's PA what color she wanted me in for our duet and find out from our crew what color we wanted to be in for our performance. We'd officially decided that we'd be debuting ‘Rescue Me' and it needed to be kind of awesome. We had a meeting with Catherine Hardwicke to talk about video concepts. Our cover wasn't as hard rock as the original, instead it was an interesting blend of smooth jazz and power ballad and we wanted to do something fierce and yet something that hadn't been seen a million time. 

We held Monday's meeting at Flat Top near campus. The restaurant had a meeting room that would house the three of us, along with Deborah and the four prospective personal assistants. "Thank you for being willing to meet with us over lunch. Part of the reason that we need a PA is because we are juggling our career and our education; either of which could be considered a full time job by itself." I smiled kindly. "I am Mercedes Jones, this is Noah Puckerman to my left and Samuel Evans on my right, and Deborah Jergens on Sam's other side. You are here to interview for a position as our personal assistant.” I gave them a quick rundown on the needs the Noah, Sam and I had outlined needing help with. Then I continued, “I can assure you that this will probably not be a normal interview. We have your CVs and resumes and in a few cases your transcripts. If we weren't sure that you met the qualifications that were set forth for the position, you wouldn't be here. This interview is to get to know a little more about you as peoples as well as seeing how well you might mesh with us. Why don't you introduce yourselves?" 

I gestured to the very light skinned or biracial woman seated across from Noah. "Hello, I am Niecy Palmer; I received a degree in administrative management from Excelsior College in December. I also hold certification in Nutrition and Diet management. I currently live in Harlem but I was born in Wiesbaden Germany and grew up in the Bronx. As my mother is German, I am fully bilingual; speaking both German and English. I have listened to your album and I applaud your efforts to expand tolerance and further positive body image." She was really thin and thanks to Sam reminded me of a black or mixed Pepper Potts. I did like her business suit. It was a nice shade of lighter gray and had been accessorized with a pair of gorgeous sky high black leather pumps.

The next ginger haired gentleman next to her went next. "Good afternoon, I am Martin O'Malley…absolutely no relation to any famous person or politician. I am twenty-three years old and I have been an Administrative Assistant at the United Way for the last eighteen months. I am also bilingual, but one of those languages is Celtic, so there really isn't much use for it." He smiled good-naturedly. "I was born and raised in Boston, I am the youngest of six, raised Irish Catholic and am pretty much currently agnostic. I play the bagpipes, the accordion and the harmonica. My Mam also made me take Irish clog dancing but thankfully I only had to take that one for a year."

The next in line was a very, very shy looking young woman. She had long red hair, pulled back into a thick, rather severe bun, but there were curly tendrils escaping to frame her heart shaped face. Her eyes were large, green and burned with intelligence. Her skin was extremely pale and she looked bright, just shy and retiring. She was tiny, even shorter than I was and thinner than Stacey. When she spoke, her voice was so quiet I was barely able to make out her words. Yet there was a layer of steel underlying them. "My name is Hudson Friedman. I'm twenty-five years old; I have degrees in library science, administrative management, computer science, web design and event planning. I am fluent in Spanish, French, and Portuguese. I like to cook and I love music even if I can't sing…at all. I am working at overcoming avoidance personality disorder." God she was so qualified, but I wasn't sure that she could last a day with our lifestyles. Puck alone was pretty much destined to send her into a panic attack. Then her eyes met mine, and she visibly straightened her spine. "I am efficient, organized, unobtrusive and unflappable." That last one was the most important thing she said. Her CV had demonstrated the first three.

The last of the interviewees was a definite no. He was a big, tall, broad man with flinty gray eyes that made me more uncomfortable that I could remember being since Shane Tinsley's trial. His voice was gravely and he seemed older than we were really looking for. "My name is Richard Long. I have a degree in financial planning and I am a former Primerica financial advisor." I could feel both Puck and Sam getting more and more pissed. The dude's eyes never left my chest. In the interview suit Lyor had given me for the surprise interviews at Columbia and NYU, I wasn't even wearing anything particularly low cut or tight. 

We asked them a series of questions designed to give us glimpses into their real selves. The very first question was designed to figure out how much they considered money over job satisfaction and being treated well. "If you got hired, loved everything about this job, and were paid the salary you asked for, what kind of offer from another company would you consider?" Deborah asked Mr. O'Malley. 

He gave her what he was sure was a winning smile. "They would need to offer a substantive raise and the ability for career growth." That helped us weed out those people who might decide that selling our stuff on ebay wouldn't be horrible no matter how well paid they were. So he probably wouldn't sell our shit, but he would definitely leave us high and dry if a job with better title came along the pike. 

Sam went next and he targeted Mr. Long. "Who is your role model, and why?"

If his overall creepishness hadn't lost him any chance at the job, his answer to that question did. "My role model is Donald Trump. He is vastly wealthy, yet is constantly improving his wealth and his brand. He takes chances and has modernized his brand over and over as the years have gone by." It took everything within me to maintain my professionalism and not kick him out of the meeting immediately. Donald trump was an affront to anyone with even the slightest whit of fashion sense…not a comb over my ass.

The next question asked Ms. Palmer to tell us what we'd be talking about if we came together to celebrate their first year with us, how and what would we be celebrating as far as their achievements and our own. "Well, considering that your first album is well on the way to reaching platinum status, it won't take us a year to celebrate that. I suppose we could be celebrating the success of your next big venture but instead, we'll probably be celebrating SongBird's Oscar win. However I have to admit we'd probably be somewhere a lot louder and filled with people all celebrating it as well." She answered with a confident smile. 

It was Ms. Friedman that we asked which of the required skills did she not particularly like to use, and which parts of their skill set had brought them the most satisfaction in learning. "I really, really loved learning languages. I have a definite affinity for learning them and can read in a total of twelve, fourteen read and five spoken if you count Na'vi and Klingon. But at the same time, I’m really not a fan of speaking in front of large crowds."

"Oh we always count both Klingon and Na'vi." Sam said happily before the two of them went into a full-blown conversation in Na'vi. Puck and I exchanged smiles. If we went with her, and she was definitely the best person we interviewed that day, Sam would be hella happy. But there was still Lauren's cousin to interview. There were a total of fourteen questions that we used to assess those four interviewers as well as the five we interviewed at Brownie's Café on Wednesday and the six we interviewed at Thai Market on Friday. 

In our Friday interviews we finally encountered Lauren’s cousin Darcy. Darcy Lewis was everything we'd expected and yet completely different than we'd thought. She had the perfect skill set to manage all our online accounts and build our webpage and presence. She could easily manage the day to day tasks we were looking for help with even if that part wouldn’t be very much fun to her. But it was her personality that made her so cool. When we asked her ‘what is your spirit animal? She actually gave us a real answer. And it was an awesome answer too. She looked thoughtful for a second and then smiled mischievously. "A duck-since while the birds are calm above the surface, their webbed feet don't stop hustling". Everyone else had looked at us like we were crazy and tossed out the expected things like lions or bears or rabbit. Ms. Friedman's answer of a hawk, not because she thought in terms of predator and prey, but because of the attention they pay to the details was our second favorite.

The evening meetings were held at restaurants near Rockefeller center. We had our Monday night meetings at Eleven Madison Park. There we met with Renaissance Forrest, Myra Grissom, Kyle Flaherty and Ameri Schindler. Both women were dressed very elegantly, but well within the bounds of professionalism. The questions we asked them were a blend of the personality assessment questions and ones that improved our knowledge of their qualifications. I noticed that Mr. Forrest looked very polished, but Puck decided that was because he'd had so many different jobs, he had to know how to interview well. So we asked why he had held so many jobs in so many years. "I suppose that I am still looking for a place where I really fit. I needed a job that challenged me and gave me the chance to expand my knowledge base." I thought that sounded like a good answer, but Deborah noted that he gets bored and moves on…what would stop him from getting bored with us. 

Myra Grissom was a tall…like Coach Bieste tall, woman with platinum blonde hair that didn't fit her olive complexion. Her suit was a plum colored sheath dress and jacket combo that she had dressed up for evening with higher heels and larger costume jewelry. Her experience was pretty localized to the rock scene, but she was looking forward to expanding her prevue. When we asked her what her story was, she laughed. "I'm twenty-eight years old, never been married and I have no kids. My story is still being written and I have no clue what it will say when I turn the page." 

We asked Mr. Flaherty how he would juggle the job with his wife and any possible kids. He looked pinched and tight around both the eyes and the lips. Before stating that he was pretty sure that that question was outside the EEOC guidelines for what we could and could not ask. Deborah smiled like the shark she really was and responded. "Actually our HR department has vetted that question and crafted it so that while a little invasive, it is completely legal." When he still didn't have an answer we moved on, but Deborah struck his name off the short list. I could see her point. I knew from many of the articles that I'd read about successful women, that question is something they often face during interviews. If they could all answer it, then so could he.

Ameri Schindler had no problem answering the same question. "I believe that there should be a balance between work and family life. If I ever have children, I would want to find a way to be there for them and still be there for you. People across this country do it every day, even those who make significantly less than people do in the music industry. It is a matter of passion, organization and love to create that balance and I have all three in abundance."

After each dinner meeting, we went back to Warner and discussed all the different applicants and weeded the short lists down even further. Tuesday even found us having dinner at Lincoln Ristorante with Haja Johnston, Candice Meltice, Maria Cerozie and Jessie Kerrville. I later wondered if we should have found somewhere that Jessie felt more at home. Then again, it was a good thing to note that he looked even less comfortable in a suit than George usually did. We asked him about his background and experience and what he had enjoyed best about his previous positions. When he answered with a flippant and quite honestly dismissive tone by saying, "Not having to wear a god forsaken suit," I knew that he had shot himself in the foot with me. We weren't going to ask our talent manager to wear a suit every day, but when the situation called for it, we couldn't have him clawing at it like a five year old. 

Haja's response to what he perceived would be something that he could bring to the position that no one else would was just classic. "I will be able to save you the cost of hiring a stylist until your little friend, the cute little boi with the bowtie loving boyfriend, until he finishes FIT. I can also give you my skills as a tour manager on top of everything else. I have heard through the grapevine that you guys don't want to be talked down to, you want someone who, while you don't have to watch them like hawks, you want to be able to learn from them. That is what I am offering you. I really want to find a person or group to manage where it isn't just a business relationship. Gordon Berry supposedly knew the names of all his artists' kids…even a lot of their birthdays…that is what I hope to bring to you three someone who cares about you enough to keep you away from the things that destroys artists your age in this industry. I'm not going to be your parent, but I will have their numbers." He joked. 

I asked Ms. Meltice to tell us about the one accomplishment or project that she considered to be the most significant in her career. Her answer drew from her experience in filmmaking and I really got the feeling that she desperately wanted to get back into that sphere rather than sticking things out in music. I think we spent more time discussing her BFA and our classes towards ours than we really did interviewing her. 

Maria Cerozie was certainly the best dressed of all the candidates present that night. Her black Calvin Klein illusion mesh sweater dress was designed to be appropriate for day or night with a change of accessories. She pulled it off well. She also grated my nerves worse than Santana ever had. She was bossy and over opinionated and when she was asked to tell us how she would help us on our rise to stardom…her answer made me want to order a glass of wine just to toss it in her face. "Well, first of all you have too many ‘friends' all up in your business. I'm sure that they are talented, but I don't see a benefit to having your friends in your pocket all the time. Second of all it sounds nice to say that you're keeping the promise you made to your parents to get an education, but you could be doing so much more right now if you would at least concentrate a little more on your career…go to school online if you really must. I could get you more gigs than you could possibly take if you weren't stuck in New York nine months of the year." I hope that she didn't see me roll my eyes at that bullshit. Our parents' hopes and dreams for us might not be as important to her as our career, but they sure as hell were just as important to us. 

I may have ranted and raved about her for a while at the after meeting. Only like twenty minutes or so. Sam, Puck and I made love for hours that night while they tried to get me to let go of the anger that broad had brought forth in me. Probably I was calm after the first two rounds, but I let them have rounds three and four just to make sure. I was completely exhausted but so satisfied that I couldn’t be bothered to care that I had only gotten about two hours of sleep that night.

Wednesday, I napped whenever I could over the course of the day. So much so that I was almost late for the lunch meeting. That evening’s set of interviews found us at Mr. K's a high end Chinese restaurant. That night we sat down with Brantley Clayton, Jeremy Nyland, Erecka Hoffman and Dex Boccio. Erecka Hoffman was a very different kind of black woman from most of the women I knew. But then again, I was very sheltered and she was still recognizable from several hip-hop videos. Unfortunately she wasn't going to be a good fit for us. When asked about how she would help our career, she wanted us to lean more towards R&B and Hip-hop because she felt the fusion thing we did would only work as a novelty act. Apparently, she hadn't bothered to listen to our Today Show interview where we discussed how important it was to us to offer something different than what radio had been shoving down people's throats for years. Yes, we'd stated it more diplomatically, but that was what it had boiled down to. 

Dex Boccio looked like a pit boss from Casino. Maybe that was mean, but he did. He didn't really have all that much experience as a talent manager. He was primarily a sales man. He talked in terms of numbers and how they were great but could be improved. He had some great ideas, and he would be perfect for a younger act, someone debuting on the scene at the Bieber age or like the Olsen twins had been when they were little. A numbers manager to give the parent managers a hand at getting things done.   
Jeremy Nyland was very nice. He was charming and he was cool. But he couldn't think of a moment that would qualify as the time he was most satisfied in his life, without going back to when he scored a winning run on his pee-wee baseball team. I wasn't sure why, I found that extremely distressing. Was he really that unsatisfied with where he was in his life that he had to go back to his childhood for a good memory? If so, why was that? What had he found so dissatisfying in earning his degree and his masters? I couldn't fathom finding either of those as less satisfying than a tot baseball game. He did have the redeeming quality that he seemed like he and Karofsky would be a good couple, but that wasn’t technically a reason to hire him. 

I made the mistake of looking over at Brantley Clayton as Jeremy was giving his answer and the silver suited gentleman was giving his competitor a fierce side eye. Like he couldn't believe it either. Brantley came prepared. He had his iPad and showed us his connections and ideas for how he would get us bookings here in the city during our down time and elsewhere during the breaks. When we asked him what his superpower was he smiled. "I don't need a superpower. Batman doesn't have a super power. He uses his mind and every tool at his disposal to get his hustle on. He takes care of his fam…and other than that whole not killing the Joker thing…he is the best superhero ever." Oh he was a smart cookie; either he had done his research or he'd watched our interviews over the course of the week. Either way, it was an answer that several of us liked.

After having spoken with and gotten to know the twelve candidates for the two positions we were having the dinner interviews for, we weeded out the ones that none of us liked and the ones that were too firm in their ideas of what we needed to do and how we needed to be. Thursday we had dinner with the final four candidates at La Rivista. Then we met again at the office and decided upon the people we wanted in each of the roles. There was much arguing, there was much discord…we finally reached a consensus. Friday we sent out a dinner invitation to our top picks for dinner in our conference room catered by Spoonbread, they had definitely become Sam's favorite not homemade cooking. Even at some of the fanciest restaurants in the city he had compared them to Spoonbread and found them wanting. We'd elected to do the meeting as a dinner meeting at the conference room rather than a restaurant so that we could skype in Lauren's dad and Artie's mom. Since we were making their job offers and, hopefully, getting their paperwork signed over the course of the evening, it seemed prudent to have their input. It was a huge deal, but it was one that had the potential to make our lives run smoother. 

I could only hope that we had selected the right people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright Ladies & Gentlemen, Run...don't walk, to my ff.net profile or Yahoo Group and vote for your favorite Talent Manager, Booking Agent & Personal Assistant.
> 
> The Polls are open, but they will probably close after 24-48 hours.
> 
> Seriously, You can also drop me a line in a review to let me know what you think about the story as a whole or which prospective employee you like the most.
> 
> Plus, you know, review...pretty please with sugar and cherries on top.
> 
> Thanks Bunches,  
> TTFN,  
> Anni


	20. Fight Song (Rachel Platten){Forget You (Cee Lo Green)}, Idiot Wind (Bob Dylan), I Will Never Let You Down (Rita Ora)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank all of you for being avid readers & reviewers of my stories:  
> This Chapter Dedicated to FanFicObsessed6612 & love-orthelack-thereof, two very encouraging Learning French Series reviewers.   
> I appreciate all of you.
> 
> Isis Aurora Tomoe You are the most awesome Beta ever. Thank you for being such a help in my time of need!!!!
> 
> Anyone who is interested in applying to Beta the Learning French Series going forward, please PM me. I need one to two new betas. Please & thank you.
> 
> Caroline Dobriev as Hudson Friedman  
> Rikki Beadle-Blair as Haja Johnston  
> Lee Thompson Young as Brantley Clayton

Fight Song (Rachel Platten){Forget You (Cee Lo Green)}  
Puck PoV

I fucking loved the life we were living, but sometimes people really pissed me off. We were, in Sam's MeMaw's words running around like chickens with our heads cut off. We were working to fill the positions Warner said that we needed to have filled. We were rushing to get the house in Haywood ready for renting by the time Berkeley and Stanford’s dorms closed, because both Tee and Mike were going to take summer classes. When Tina told Cede that we’d lit a fire under Madeline’s ass because she was working as our designer in addition to being the real estate and leasing agent for the property. Antwan had the lease ready for their signatures, but at least their half of the house had to be ready in time. We’d only be making two grand of rent off of those two and their roommates, but we’d be pulling in four grand from the four people who would be in the other half of the duplex. So if we’d done an actual mortgage, we would have covered the payments twice over. Instead we’d made an arrangement with the previous owner to buy it owner to owner, no banks involved. They got actual cash in hand up front, three big ass payments instead of ten or fifteen years of little payments. For us it meant that we didn’t have any interest to deal with and we wouldn’t have to deal with any lump sum penalties. But that shit was just the tip of the iceberg. We were working to get the ‘Rescue Me' video planned, filmed, and in the can. We were working our asses off to get ready for the performances we were scheduled to do at the Movie Awards. Cede was driving us nuts obsessing over what to wear, like either of us cared. We literally wore whatever she or Hummel shoved at us to wear. I got it, I did. She was scrutinized way more than we were when it came to what she wore. But finally Sam and I had to dick her down in the family bathroom at Barneys to restore sanity to our girl. It was so good that I probably shouldn't complain though. But still.

We were rushing through the purchase of the quad-plex in our development, because Sam was all up in arms about us having too many ‘our' properties and not enough rental ones. He was just still scared of being poor again and I believed that he worried that the music money wouldn't last so he wanted to make sure that we secured our futures while it was coming in. Plus there was the fact that in order to make up for the fact that our PA and our social media guru, yeah that was the compromise we reached, Hudson would carry the main duties of a PA, and Darcy would fully take over our online presence, including but not limited to Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and everything else she was talking about in the interview. Anyway since they wouldn't make as much as any of our other employees, the two of them would be sharing a two bedroom basement apartment in the new quad-plex rent free. They would be responsible for all their own utilities, but but their apartment had a different floor plan from the ones below our house. Theirs had the two of them sharing only the common areas like the living room and kitchen…so they were getting over two grand in perks every month just from the not paying rent aspect of their contract. That was an extra twenty-seven thousand a year on top of their sixty-five grand a year salaries. They sure as hell weren’t complaining.

We finally got all the new employees onboard, except Darcy who wouldn't be taking her role on full time until after she graduated MIT in June. But she had already taken over KAMA's Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts. She was fun and quirky and snarky. Best of all she knew as much about comic books and sci-fi as Sexy Mama did so she was way more able to respond to Sam's fans than the interns who had been monitoring the feeds at Warner had been. She also had an uncanny knack, or inside info from her cousin, on which tweets Cede would hit back at and which ones she would totally rise above. Like the comments about how Cede needed to lose weight…the ‘nice' ones were ignored, the mean ones were treated to a scathing diatribe signed either by myself or Sam. I think Darcy really enjoyed finding obscure southern sayings to toss around to make ‘his' tweets sound more like him. Then that bullshit popped up about me being a rapist on account of what went down with me and Quinn. Darcy's responses killed it. ‘Never one to ‘victim' shame, because NO always means NO, but it's not rape if you say yes then get mad because he didn't want you again later' from Cede. That was all she said and it was such a perfectly Cede like comment, even Tee and Fairy thought Cede had actually typed it.

I still couldn’t believe the crap that had popped up from that one little comment. Most of the world seemed to understand that my comment meant that Quinn and I should have used a jimmy hat and that I was wrong for talking her out of it. The original conversation that stemmed from it, was mostly a discussion on how I was the perfect example of why women should always be in control of their own reproductive health, which I completely agreed with. But suddenly a few broads from somewhere in Connecticut started coming out the side of their necks with the bullshit about how it was actually rape. It didn’t seem to catch fire or go viral very fast but there was quite a bit of talk on the discussion boards that catered to the ‘what constitutes rape’ set. I was getting ready to set up an appointment with Ethan and Antwan to see what I needed to do, to protect myself…or if there was ever anything to do since it wasn’t like Quinn was one of the ones trying to call me a rapist or anything…when the chicks from Lima went ham on old girl. Apparently all the women who had gone for a ride on the Zilla back in the day felt it was their duty to stick up for me and point out that consent was a big ass deal in my seduction practices and I didn’t move beyond stages without making sure that the chick was still into it.

That kind of helped, but mainly it just caused people to start arguing. The twitter war was actually getting kind of fierce when suddenly the people that had been calling for my head on a platter apologized and said that they were wrong to accuse me of such a heinous crime without knowing me or the circumstances or the motivation of the person leading the charge. Quinn called me and let me know that they had fixed it. Which was cool, but I kind of wished she had told me what was going on before hand. Still for some reason, our accounts, downloads and in store purchases went high as hell. Necessity for Existence ended March just a stone’s throw from going platinum. It was weird, how it had started small and then snowballed but then suddenly it was cleared up, so I decided to let it rest and chalk it up to a lesson learned.

Traveling was pretty much our study time for a while. We were back in Ohio the first week of April, the twins had their first birthday and then we were in Columbus for the criminal trial of the guy who had his Finn and Lauren. Every single person in the court was shocked as hell when he changed his plea to guilty. So instead of giving him the jinky eye for several days, he asked the judge to go ahead and do his sentencing. Since we were there anyway, when the prosecutor asked us if we wanted to speak for the state to sway for a harder sentence, we did. They called Carole and Burt, Laura and Ben then I was the first of the friends called and the prosecutor asked me, as he had asked the four parents, why I wanted the maximum sentence. “Because, it is what he deserves. Look, Carole and Burt and Laura and Ben they all talked about how wrong he was for driving drunk. I don’t give a damn that he had some blow, that he smoked up, that he was getting blown by a sexy black hooker. I give a damn that he chose to get his stupid ass behind the wheel while doing all three. I give a damn that he took out my best friend since I was seven years old. I’m not gonna sit here and blow smoke up your ass about how Finn is the best guy in the world. He can be a dick. He can be an asshole. But he can also be an awesome friend. So in my book he is still worth like twenty-five of that douche bag over there. He played football because back when we were in middle school, we figured it was the only way he was gonna be able to afford to college when Carole was the only parent he had. He never wanted to play for the pros, he just wanted to use the game to get an education so he could be a teacher. He wanted to be there for kids like us. Hell, way back when, I had planned to go pro just so I could take care of him since teachers don’t make dick. Lauren is even better. She gave me a chance when she had no reason to. She took care of my boo before she was mine and Sam’s to care for. The world would have been a crappier place without either one of them.” I guess judges in the big city don’t care about the language thing. Probably a good thing since I’d have been in contempt of court for sure otherwise. 

"So you want him to have the maximum sentence for revenge?" the defense attorney asked when it was his turn.

"If I wanted revenge, I'm pretty sure that I could have tracked your client down and beaten him about three quarters of the way to death. Okay, so I wanted to do that, I really wanted to do that. But my wifey managed to convince my hubby and me, and pretty much every one of Finn's former teammates that we could so more long lasting damage to him through the legal system. Because apparently, at least in the world according to Mercedes Jones, revenge is fleeting but justice is everlasting."

When Sam took the stand he was even blunter. “Finn Hudson and I had our issues. But that doesn’t change the fact that Mr. Paley deserves to have the book thrown at him. Lauren has always been an awesome friend and she made a man outta Finn…she reminded him how to be the man his mama raised him to be. Mr. Paley chose to drive with alcohol, marijuana and cocaine in his blood stream. He chose to drive while he was getting fellatio from a hooker. Either of those were a bad choice, together they were almost deadly. There have to be real consequences. There have to be real repercussions. Letting him off with a slap on the wrist because he has money, because he was a city councilman…that makes no sense. It would be saying to the community, to the entire state of Ohio that you can be above the law if you are rich enough. He is not above the law. He needs to face the consequences of almost taking too damn fine people from this world. Because if the next time he takes it into his mind to drive all hopped up on all that mess, he kills someone, the blame won’t be his alone.”

“I understand why the defendant changed his plea. He realized that the accident had been caught on three different traffic cameras. He realized that he was going to be convicted and his only hope was that by changing his plea would see that the judge would go for whatever reduced sentence he’d originally been offered.” Sexy Mama said when it was her turn. “Well, Finn and Lauren’s friends and family are desperate to make sure that he doesn’t walk out of here with less than seven years and a ten thousand dollar fine. Those are the maximum penalties. In fact, Mr. Paley almost committed vehicular homicide…that would have held much stiffer penalties. I love Finn Hudson, he is the brother of my best friend, he is the bro of both of my husbands. He is my friend. He is the quarterback of our little clique. I love Lauren Zizes, she was my first manager and she helped me find my back bone when I felt like I had been ground down into dust. She is my friend. I don’t say all of this hoping for vengeance…that belongs to the Lord, justice, however is the purview of man, of this court. Please, give Finn and Lauren justice. Give Mr. Paley the sentence that he deserves.” 

Thank Yahweh, the judge listened. Mr. Paley got seven years with no chance of parole until after five. Even after he got out, his license would be suspended for at least three additional years and he had a ten grand fine. But that was nothing. The very next day he was slapped with a lawsuit for every single dollar of both Lauren and Finn’s hospital bills and the entirety of their tuition for five years…just in case Finn had to repeat a year after all. He had done well on his midterms, but they hadn’t known that when they drew up the paperwork. There was some padding in there for pain and suffering too, but it wasn’t all that much. I really hope that they won that one too. We headed home but the down time we had in Ohio was as close to a weekend as we got that week.

The first weekend of April, we spent with Caroline Hardwicke and her crew in Napanoch New York filming three fourths of the video for ‘Rescue Me’. The area was really beautiful, but the hotel we were filming at was haunted as hell. I don’t care what anyone said, there was a weird, kind of oppressive feeling to the place and I kept seeing things out of the corner of my eye and then when I turned to look and see them fully, nothing was there. I was so happy when we left that place. Thankfully, while we did stay up there overnight, Cede put her foot down and we didn’t sleep in the hotel we filmed at. It was a kind of cool weekend. Got no rest at all any of us, all the filming was at night and during the day I was working on a paper for my microeconomics class, Sam had a huge CADD project for his Architectural Design class, and Mercedes had a French paper and we all had projects for our Julliard composition class. Granted the projects were all to ‘make up’ for the classes we missed that week.

But there were a bunch more assignments over the course of the week since we were getting closer and closer to the end of the semester. That Friday night we filmed the last scenes for the video and the following Monday we were in our conference room, our entourage was growing and growing. We watched the fully edited video and it was damn good. It was more of a mini movie than anything else. We didn't even sing for quite a bit of it, but the video was so cool, that it was barely noticed that we weren't really shown singing much. There were some notes, and she had to make some changes, but Ms. Hardwicke got it to Deborah for delivery to the Movie Awards people by Wednesday as per their request.

I had to say, having Hudson working for us was truly and completely awesome. She did all our travel plans and followed the promises we had made to the band. Which was perfect, because by the time we remembered she had already taken care of it and saved us a mint and a half. She had arranged for Rickie to do Mercedes hair Thursday after all our classes and she was flying to LA with us to take care of Cede Sunday night. We flew out Friday, checked into the Luxe City Center, us into a Platinum Suite, and the band and dancers in many of the hotel’s deluxe rooms. Hud had even made sure that Artie, Tana and Brittany’s room was fully accessible. She and Rickie shared one of the double deluxe rooms. Hudson wasn’t comfortable with having a room by herself and apparently she and Rickie had bonded while she was convincing Rickie to come to the house and do all the crap he did to Cede’s hair. Seriously she took our Cede’s weave, washed and deep conditioned her natural hair and then he gave her a head full of ‘Senegalese twists’…like the black yellow ranger used to have on Power Rangers when I was little. I liked them. Mercedes let us play with those more than she did a regular weave.

Hudson had done her research or homework or whatever, because not only did she have the hotel rooms booked and all the travel arrangements made, when we got to our room there was a brand new cooler of unopened ice and a shit load of Aquafinas. Cede and her Fairy keep trying to educate our water palettes, but Sam can barely stand to spend the money for Aquafina, he sure as hell ain’t about to chuck out three or four bucks a bottle for some twa-twa water that tastes just the same to him. Besides I tasted all those other ones, and I still liked Aquafina better. She had also made sure that there was plenty of fresh fruit in the room rather than a minifridge full of bullshit junkfood. Hudson also made sure that there were groups of three of everything, six glasses not four, three bathrobes not two…three chairs at the table rather than just two. Her attention to detail made the stay just so much better than any we’d ever had before.

We didn't think that we had anywhere to be Saturday until our appointed sound check time at five in the afternoon. So we made love from the time we checked in at eight local time, until well after midnight. It was great to have hours to spend playing with Cede's tits or having Sam suck my dick. I can honestly say that I hoped whoever was in the room next door, they had some serious contraception methods in play because Sam and I out did ourselves making Mercedes Jones scream out that special ball buster scream of hers. I was relaxed as hell and slept like a baby, until we got a wakeup call at eight. Hudson had booked the girls a spa day, and she got all the guys tickets to see the Dodgers play the Diamondbacks. It was cool. Sam and Dam-Dam all love baseball. Dave and I are both more football guys, and Justin, Jackson and Simeon could not have possibly cared less. But when we met up for a quick bite to eat before we headed to the Microsoft Theatre for sound check, the ladies were looking completely relaxed, they had had their nails done and they were glowing. Cede in particular looked more at ease than I had seen her in a long while, so I would have sat through another irritating seven inning stretch just for that alone.

The production people were awesome. They showed us where we'd be able to change the next night. They gave us the schedule for the night. It was all very professional and you could tell that they were prepared for any eventuality. Our instruments had arrived and they had some guys there who helped us get everything put together and set up for our performance. Sound check was pretty cool; we managed to keep it to the hour we were allotted. Jill came in as we were finishing up our sound check/practice, and she and Cede blew theirs out. The original plan had been for them to sing over the track, but our band was so awesome, they changed their minds last minute and it was the best I had ever heard them sound. It was epic. That night we were slow and easy in our love making because we knew that Sunday was sure as hell a make or break night for us and we were determined to shine.

 

Idiot Wind (Bob Dylan)  
Santana PoV

Mercedes and the guys were not expecting all of their lives and careers to snowball as much as everything had. They now had a personal assistant. At first I really didn't get why they had hired Hudson Friedman. She was tiny and shy and quiet. But one night when the entire band and all the dancers and the new talent manager Haja and Hummel were all cluttering the first floor of Commune and Klaine's house that shit clicked for me hard. Hudson was tiny, she could move unobtrusively from cluster to cluster. She might have been shy, but she was also determined. Whether she liked speaking up or not, she managed to keep us mostly on topic. She provided insights amongst us about the thoughts in the other clusters. Like while Xena, the Dam brothers and me were trying to decide what shade Poison…she had a big butt and a smile…meant when she said gray, Doodlebug popped up, whipped out her iPad and showed us the exact shade we needed to look for when we were looking for the guys shirts. She showed us the dress that Wheezy, Jazz Hands and Haja had decided on for ROUS, which made it easy for me and Xena to find two or three looks for approval. She was completely organized and she knew when whatever we needed was on sale or available for a better price somewhere else. I hated to admit it, but they had made the right choice even without my input.

Before we knew it we were back in Los Angeles for the second time in less than six weeks. The trip was a little longer and things weren't as rushed. We checked in Friday evening, Artie, Britts and I had a blast in the accessible shower. Then we unpacked and showered to get clean rather than just to get off. We snuggled down and watched some Hannibal until we knocked out. The next morning, we were surprised when all our phones started going off. Apparently Little Miss Muffett had booked us a spa day, well the girls anyway, the guys she sent out to breakfast and then to an afternoon game at Dodgers stadium. When we gathered in the lobby, Telma grabbed Hudson, "Thank you for setting this up. To be honest everything has been happening so fast that I didn't even think about doing something like this."

La petite chaud gave her a big grin and honestly returned. "You're welcome, but you should thank Noah's grandmother and your mom. They called me and asked me if you'd remembered to plan for facials, show makeup and everything. When I admitted that we hadn't, Ms. Mayzer gave me contact information for a few of her friends out here. One was able to get you all in at the Ritz Carlton Spa today…they were booked solid tomorrow. Then tomorrow afternoon, Albert Westwood is going to come and handle everyone's makeup looks." She looked down in her tote bag. "I hope that I haven't overstepped my bounds, but I went ahead and got Ms. Jory at the spa a gift card for Nordstrom's and one from MAC for Mr. Westwood…to show your appreciation for them working you into their schedules."

"No that is perfect." Mercedes big ass smile tried to blind us all. "Remind me to get Mom and Bubbie Ruth something too."

Hudson hustled us through the lobby to the entrance for the Spa. She checked us in and then turned to us while the spa staff handed us bundles of robes and fuzzy slippers. "Ladies, we're a larger group so we'll be breaking you down for your treatments. Bianca, Brittany, Elena and Rainbow, your assistant today is Gwen. She will lead you from treatment room to treatment room. You will all start with The Champion's Massage." She turned to Gwen. "Remember they are to have the eighty minute treatment. I've seen what they put their bodies through…" there was that steely tone that made you respect her little ass. Her attention was once again on the dancers. "Then you have the fifty minute head and toes treatment, followed by the classic spa mani/pedi and the Ritz Carlton Signature facial, the fifty minute one and you can call yourself finished with the French polish. Once you are done, you can do whatever you want. They offer a million services. However, anything extra will be on you."

Gwen took them over to the desk so they could make any arrangements for other services then, after me and Britts said our goodbyes, she led them off down one of the very well appointed hallways. Which meant that it was time to find out how I was going to be pampered for the day. "Okay, Santana, Xena you two and Mercedes will be together for most things, but she has a couple of sessions that you don't. So while you two are doing the Head and Toes treatment, Mercedes you'll be having the LA Rocks massage. Then you all join back up for the Marula hand and foot ritual. Mercedes, your mother told me to add in the warm paraffin treatment to your pedicure. Then Santana and Xena go in for the Executive massage, that is an eighty minute treatment to match up with Mercedes going in for the slim body sensation, which Mrs. Jory assures me has less to do with weight and everything to do with skin toning and rejuvenation. The three of you will sit for Shellac manicures and then facials. Mercedes will go for eighty minutes, but Santana and Xena yours will be over after fifty. Same thing goes for you. You can have any treatment you want after you finish the group ones, but again that's completely on you."

The day was epic. After all the group things, I went ahead and shelled out to have my legs waxed. It was about time, and there was no point in waiting until I got back to the chick I went to in Manhattan when I was already at the spa. I was sure that I spoke for all of us when I said that we left there feeling like money. Hudson had culled us out some time to do a little exploring around the area too…so it was a boss day. As we were leaving the Grammy Museum, Brittany, Cedes and my cell phones lit up. Sue was crowing to all her former Cheerios that they had taken Nationals again. She was also demanding that Mercedes win that night because the winning routine had been done to ‘Shakin My Head', which made our old coach even more emotionally invested in Cedes' success. We met up with the guys and had just enough food to hold us over until after we left from sound check, which also served as our practice time. The people running the show were beyond efficient. The only one who was more so was Hudson Hawk. She was awesome. Our practices had never run as smoothly before she came along. She managed us without any of us feeling managed or manipulated. It was kind of cool. We ended up picking up the task of performing on Cedes' duet too, so we ran through that a few times while Cedes and Jill Muthafuckin Scott did their sound check.

The next day, we got up and we all had breakfast together in Ford's Filling Station, one of the two breakfast places available in the hotel. Their huevos rancheros were the bomb. It was cool. We talked about the last time we were in LA…which lead to a full reminiscing about all of Spring Break… which led to us clowning all of them for the way they'd looked on CBS this morning when they had learned about Cedes' nominations. All the interviews had been cool. They had been different from each other and, though we'd been ready to go on for three, we'd only actually performed on two. Which totally reminded me…I needed to wreak havoc in the life of Chelsea Handler. That alcoholic biotch needed to learn that the only person who can say shit to Mercedes Antoinette Jones about the size of her tits and ass…well other than her husbands… was me. And no one said that shit as if they were negatives. Oh no…she would pay. It was just a matter of time and opportunity.

After breakfast we headed back up to our rooms. Xena and I had decided on a hairstyle that was similar to the one the New Directions girls had worn for our exhibition at the NHSSCA nationals the year before. We decided on seven cornrows back from our forehead then long waves and curls. Brits handled the cornrows for me and I helped her blow her hair out. By the time Hudson texted us to come to her room for makeup, we were ready to go. We went down and met Albert Westwood. He looked us over, and asked a few questions about what we were wearing for the performance and what we had to put on for afterwards. "I'm wearing an Alexander Wang wraparound dress that doesn't actually wrap around, just the silver zipper detail does. It wraps around my waist and down my hip to the slit up my thigh."

"Oh good." He cackled. "I'm thinking that since you're in all black for the performance, we can really do something bold for your makeup. I want to give you a full silver metallic smoky eye, neutral cheeks and a finish you off with Lady Danger red lips." He walked me through how I would touch up the look as he used an airbrush gun and HD foundation to start me off. He worked fast and efficient. Then he did something similar for Brittany and despite him using the same color palate, she still had completely different eyes. Her look was more street, which would work with both her performance look and with her ice blue strapless princess mini-dress. The dress looked like Brittany should have been trying to make it back home by midnight, yet it also showed off her ridiculously sexy, long legs. He gave her some blush on the apples of her cheeks and barely blended and a pink called crème cup. Dude guy loved his MAC products, but we left there with our lipsticks so it was damn nice for us.

Getting dressed was done quickly and we were all in the car with our tickets and our performance gear in time to get to the hall before the red carpet livened up. Xena's makeup look was a more ‘mature' version of mine, more silvery smoke, less metallic, a healthy flush to her cheeks and darker, redder lips. I loved her dress, it was totally adorable. A seriously hot bandage dress in a great shade of berry. They actually took our picture, but nothing like it would have been like an hour later. We found our seats and which weren't great but hell we were there. We got to see people start arriving. I looked over when Mercedes and the guys were being escorted to their seats nearer the front. She looked really awesome in a gorgeous V-neck, high low cocktail dress that looked like a starry night sky. The starlight on the dress was mirrored in her platinum and diamond statement earrings, Coomi bracelets. She finished off the look with a pair of sky high Giuseppe Zanotti jewel-embellished black silk evening sandals. Puck was rocking black slacks, a dove gray business shirt with his sleeves rolled up and a black skinny tie. Sam looked great in a gray Ralph Lauren suit with an ice blue shirt and a tie that managed to tie his look together with both Cedes dress and Puck’s more casual look. They looked amazing together…and so in love that it actually made me nauseous.

When most of the evenings attendees were present, the ceremony opened with the ‘Rescue Me’ video debut. It was pretty awesome to see KAMA's new music video playing on the big screen, and to the world viewing at home. The camera shows them chilling on an old twenties looking couch as the very not twenties guitar riff starts in. They are making out and just looking like they had just come back from a speakeasy. Puck looked like he was the club's owner, a straight up gangster. Sam looked pretty much what you'd have thought Captain America would have looked like, clean cut and dressed for a night on the town…but not like he inserted “see” at the end of most of his sentences. Cedes had her hair done up in finger waves and there was a fancy rhinestone band around her head with a pretty feather set coming up from the back. Her black and silver flapper dress hugged her curves and had a boatload of silver fringe to it. Just as Puck was inching it up enough to see that she was even wearing authentic twenties looking stockings, there was a bamming on their door. That was when I realized that the music we heard was in the scene. Sam got up and headed over to the door tucking his shirt tails in as he went.

Jackson, the Dam brothers and Justin were clustered in the doorway. "Y'all gots to clear out. Sam’s dad buddy, the copper, saw you at the speakeasy when they rousted us tonight. The Wrecking Crew is coming after you.” Justin said quickly and strongly.

“Justin's gonna stay here and try and convince them it's his place so they don't burn you all out." Jackson told them as they hustled them out the door.

The scene cut to the three of them running and getting into what looked like a Ford Model T or something that screamed nineteen twenties. Then the trio was in the car driving like bats out of hell on a winding up hill road. It showed a hotel on top of the hill and for some reason you knew that they were trying to reach there and some sort of safety it offered. We watched as Sam and Mercedes kept looking back at the people chasing them in a pickup that looked very old timey too while Puck tried to concentrate on driving. Their pursuers were in white robes and hoods and yelling indistinctly, but you could almost hear the hate. The music was still playing in the background and one of the more frantic hooks provided the backdrop for when the damn thing went over the cliff. The camera showed the ‘Wrecking Crew’ gets out to verify that no one had survived. One of them shoulders a rifle and shots crack through the end of the second verse.

The camera pans to the hotel and it looks dark and abandoned where before it had seemed a safe haven. As the chorus begins again, you see ghostly versions of ROUS, Trouty and Puck in the hotel on what seemed to be different floors or hallways or whatever. Each of them singing out, and you could tell that they could hear each other but never find each other. They had done a good job making them look ghostly without making them look like they had been dusted in flour. Cedes was in a flowy white maxi dress whose layers of chiffon floated on every breeze. Puck and Sam were both in floaty white cotton shirts and white linen pants. They didn't go for the grayed out ghosts, they created the ghostly effect with the clothing and the ambience. As the last verse starts, you see through the windows of three different floors from KAMA's perspective as headlights race towards the hotel once again. The camera telescopes so you can see that the cars are definitely modern but the chase is still the same. The car containing an interracial gay couple tumbles off the cliff, the ‘Wrecking Crew’ gets out to check and again shots ring out into the night.

There is a black screen for literally just enough time read the words, ‘Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.' Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. the chorus is repeated and we see KAMA's ghosts reunited at last as they stand at the edge of the cliff where they had died and look down on the recent wreck. The camera pans to the inn and you see two shapes in the windows of separate floors. As the final mournful piano chords fade away, you see the cliff is empty once again.

The theatre was quiet for a moment, and then boom, everyone was on their feet clapping and it was just crazy. They cut to commercial and Hudson texted us that it was time for us to get back stage. I could hear them go through to the opening scene and then introduce Conan O'Brien who came out red in the face, and honestly he looked a little like he had been crying. That was awesome. I may have laughed all the way back stage…to myself only…everyone didn't need to know that I was kind of a heartless bitch.

There were two quick change stations set up in a large area backstage. Half had been set aside for the female members of bands and performers, the other half for the guys. There were women in various stages of undress around us, but who had the time to check them out. I had myself out of my surprisingly easy to get into and out of dress and into the more difficult than I would have thought it black, satin look peplum romper with its deep V neckline and empire waist. Actually I guess that wasn't really hard, not compared to getting into the over the knee black leather four inch boots. Soon as I was dressed and ready, I glanced around. Britts, Bae-Bae, Elena and Rainbow were all dressed in baggy jeans and colorful tops. Stepping into the ‘hall' I noticed that Jack, Simeon and Damien was ready and waiting while Adam was still getting dressed. Then again they were just in black jeans and silver dress shirts. The hardest thing those two had to do was button the wrist cuffs. I don't know when Sam and Puck had gotten back here, but they were ready as well. Like the Dam bros, Puck and Sam were wearing black and silver. Puck's pants were jeans at the waist then down to about halfway down then they became leather. Sam's stayed jeans and he was rocking a pair of black cowboy boots, his shirt was charcoal compared to Puck's heather and both of them had their sleeves rolled up almost to their elbows. They looked good. Sam's hair looked like he, or maybe Puck from how swollen his lips were, had been running his fingers through it like crazy. Adam joined us, Erica, Dave and Justin had been the first done, they had all worn all black so they didn't actually have to change. They were smart. I was vain.

Mercedes joined us looking hot in a silver, A-line mini dress with a shallow v neckline and straps that looked just like Xena and mine. We said a quick prayer, because while Puck might forget, neither Lips McGuillicuty nor Boobs McGee ever would. We took our places on the stage behind the curtain and before we could blink really Brad Paisley and LL Cool J were introducing KAMA. "One of the brightest and freshest groups to come onto the scene in a very long time."

Brad started the introduction and then LL took over. "Their music and message of love, positive body image and tolerance is resonating with audiences around the world and their debut album Necessity 4 Existence has gone platinum here, in Australia and the UK…and their third video just made the whole world weep. Ladies and gentlemen…put your hands together for KAMA.

The curtain went up and Justin was killing it on the opening piano solo. Brits and the dancers busted onto the stage moving in street dances that looked awesome. Artie's guitar joined Justin as Dave started a driving drum beat under it all. Puck and Sam always had Artie take the guitar on this song, mainly because they never knew when they would start jumping around or pantomiming fighting or something. The song drove them. Mercedes in her short silver dress and tall, high black boots drove them too. They were all up on her and the audience loved it…every single bar. Stars were standing up acting like they were at a concert. Some of them were straight fangirling…and that wasn't just the young ones. I saw Julia Roberts jamming her ass off. It was fucking epic.

We came off, but only Puck and Sam were able to return to their seats. Mercedes had to stay kind of near the front because her nominated category, hers and Jill's, was up next. When Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson announced that Jill and Mercedes Jones had won the best musical moment, I know my ass screamed in joy. Mercedes looked like she didn't believe it. Thank God Artie had stayed close to her. He nudged her until she started moving forward. Jill Scott came up out the audience and Mercedes strode out from behind the curtain. Jill went first and she thanked all the appropriate people. Then it was Cedes turn. "I…I need to thank God. Like seriously. The last two years of my life could have gone so differently if not for the grace of God. I want to thank my parents for supporting me and my Sam and my Noah, and all my family and friends and my band. The teachers and coaches who actually believed in me. Oh and congratulations to the Cheerios…another National title under their belts. I need to thank Jessie J for writing such an awesome song. And all the mothers and daughters out there who listen to it and find a way to grow closer. Thank you Lyor Cohen for thinking that I had something to offer the world. And thank you to the amazing Lady standing next to me. She refused to allow Hollywood to cast someone in this part who didn't look like she could have been Jill Scott's daughter." Probably she would have thanked some more people but they started the wrap it up music.

Thankfully the show went to a commercial break after that award because the ‘Who You Are’ duet performance was up next. We managed to get Cedes out of her silver dress and into her black body con midi dress with its teal topper, and out of the tall boots and into a pair of open toe ankle booties. We even managed to get her hair up for the duet. Jill's people were just as quick. The band got back into place and we provided the background for ‘Who You Are'. On the way back to our seats after we got changed and had everything packed back away for Hudson to get transported back home, I managed to accidentally bump into Chelsea Handler and made her spill her flask of gasoline or whatever that bitch drinks all over her thirty-five hundred dollar Roberto Cavalli mini-dress. I felt much better after that. The rest of the night was a blur. We were all kind of disappointed that Mercedes didn't win breakthrough performance. But Wheezy didn't seem to care at all. Then again, the night was still incredibly awesome. Unfortunately, not only were we all too young to go to the after parties, the good ones anyway, most of us had classes the next morning. So we took the red eye back to LaGuardia. Classes the next day were totally worth the fact that I'd had maybe two hours of non-plane sleep the night before.

My music theory and ear professor congratulated me on the win for my friend and asked me to describe for the class how performing in a venue like that had felt. As I made my way to the front of the room, I could see Rachel grinding her teeth down to nubs. She was a very unhappy troll doll. "First of all the production staff was awesome. They were professional and they didn't mind answering a million and three questions." I was honest and forthright. "I'm glad that I was able to have the experience as a background singer first. Because Mercedes was damn good at hiding it, but she was nervous as hell."

"Of course she was nervous; everyone knows that the camera adds ten pounds." Rachel snarked.

"Your bitch is showing Berry." I smirked. "Besides. In case you missed the memo, Wheezy doesn't care what you or anyone else thinks about her weight, neither do Trouty or the Zilla…oh and news flash, both of the guys still wouldn't touch you with someone else's dick."

Our professor was not a stupid individual since the first day of the semester when he noticed that two girls from the same hometown and once from the same school were sitting as far apart as humanly possible, he'd known that he needed to keep us separated. Usually we tried to pretend that the other didn't exist. "Actually Ms. Berry, Ms. Jones was lauded for her look and fashion sense last night on Fashion Police. My wife loves that show and when Joan Rivers said that Mercedes Jones was the first pop princess in a long time who didn't look like she needed to be strapped down and force fed during a lecture on keeping their vaginas covered…we had to agree." His look of censure was total and rather frightening actually. "There was a time that she would have been heralded as one of the most beautiful women in the world. Now then, back to our course work."

I would have loved to shut her down then and there, but since the teacher had gotten involved, I had to let it go, for the moment. But I could feel that things with her were going to come to a head soon enough. Word through the grapevine was that Hiram and Antwan were supporting her financially, but after her popping her ass up at the drop party, that was all they were doing for her at that point. It seemed to me that they felt that they were punishing her but I thought that they were giving her exactly what she wanted.

I had my advisory meeting right after that class to pick my classes for next year. My parents had read me the riot act when I'd mentioned that I wasn't sure that I was really college material. They both had degrees, even if Mama didn't really do much with hers. I was not going to be the first one in my generation not to finish college. So I picked out my classes both at NYU and Tisch and I got ready to keep handling my business like I had the year before. It wouldn't be hard. Plus on top of the fact that I was pretty used to it, I was getting so well paid as KAMA's background singer, and my schedule was just like theirs, so it pretty much felt like they were paying me a shit ton of money to do what my parents wanted me to do anyway…I would so take it. My life was awesome.

 

I Will Never Let You Down (Rita Ora)  
Brantley Clayton PoV

There was never a time in my life where I was more determined to succeed than the day Mercedes Jones called me the afternoon after winning her first MTV Movie award. "Puck, Sam and I want to meet with you and Haja and see what you need from us to do your job to the best of your ability, which I know means that we are going to be huge. Why don't you come over for dinner next Monday and we can talk things through?"

That was how I found myself standing in the last living room you would expect to belong to a bunch of college kids or even young, successful music artists. It was beautifully decorated and neat as a pin. Puck greeted me at the door. "Oh cool you're here. Cede was going to cook, but our composition class ran long. You can be the deciding factor. Me and Sam want pizza, Cede and Haja want Chinese and Blaine is all by himself wanting Thai. But Blaine is weird; he likes his Thai so hot that it sets your mouth on fire. We had to ban him from trying to talk us into Thai on week nights."

I couldn't bite back my laughter. "Well, I'm glad to be of service. I brought some dessert. I know that you all don't drink yet. So I left the wine at home."

"Oh…is that cheesecake? Dude. We so picked the right guy." He crowed as we entered the clean and fully stocked kitchen. It looked like not only could my new boss cook, she did so often. "Cede, Brantley is here and he came bearing cheesecake." He announced us. On his way to the fridge, he dropped a kiss on Mercedes head and gently hip checked Sam. Like he couldn't resist touching them when he was that close. Haja and I exchanged a long glance…they were really in love. It was cute and yet kind of weird given their age. Haja Johnston was a tall, cut, unapologetically gay guy with an interesting face, medium brown skin, a huge smile, shoulder length blond locs and quick wit. He and I had spoken several times since we’d signed all the paperwork taking our positions. We got along well and he was going to be easy to work with long term.

Ultimately the ‘what type of delivery’ question was answered when their neighbors, who I knew as their backup singer, dancer and guitarist, came over demanding to be fed. They ordered both Chinese and pizza. The funniest thing was that despite the fact that they were totally hugely famous, they made all their friends chip in. My thoughts must have shown on my face, because Sam explained, "They would eat us out of house and home if we let them. Besides, they are only chipping in five bucks each. Usually that ends up being the tip."

Once all the food was there things got serious. "Okay, so what do we need to provide the two of you to make your job work?" Puck asked after he'd inhaled a slice of double pepperoni and black olive pizza.

Haja looked thoughtful. "While the job can be done from our house, it would give us extra credibility and you guys an extra buffer between the public and yourselves if we had an office space."

I nodded. "It would be great if there was space for a conference room. Then you could do any HR meetings where we all need to be present there rather than over at the Warner Offices."

Sam nodded. "That could work; give Mrs. Gwen a place to work when she needs to come to town. We'd need to find someplace with at least three to four dedicated offices, and a front space for your assistant. I think for now the two of you should be able to share one."

Haja and I locked eyes. Hell yeah we could share one. Neither of us had expected one in the first place. Puck smirked at us. "Yeah, but you are on your own on the whole hiring and interviewing and all that shit. Get with Mrs. Gwen to find out about salary and everything. We'll contact Mills and Francesca and see if they can show you commercial properties that will work or if there is someone they can at least recommend."

"Why so many offices?" I asked…I didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth but I didn't want them spending money they didn't need to either.

"Oh, because we are gonna need space for the two of you and either one for both Hudson and Darcy, or one for just Darcy by herself if Hudson intends to work fully from here and their apartment." Mercedes answered thoughtfully. 

That really made sense. Artie raised a point that never even entered my thinking. "You know. It might be a good idea to check into buying office space rather than renting, that way if you out grow it in a couple of years, and when you look at people like Queen Bey and Jay-Z and P-Diddy, it is possible, you won't lose money by changing spaces. Plus, you guys can set it up to work best for you. Like having the latest fiber optics and a dedicated on site server for Darcy."

Sam looked worried. "Can you talk to your mom and Uncle Saul about how that would look financially? I mean, that seems like it would be hella expensive."

Mercedes phone erupted into noise. She looked down. "Sorry it's Uncle Ethan…I need to take this." She said excusing herself.

Puck pulled out his phone and started crunching some numbers. "Actually Sam, it looks like Artie might be right. We could throw fifty to a hundred and fifty thousand in a year away on rent, or put that same amount to ownership. Besides, we only broke the purchases of the quadplex, the two condos and the house near Berkeley into thirds, we could stretch the office out over twelve payments and still not take the bath on interest that you're probably scared of."

Before he could say anything else, Mercedes came back into the room. "Umm…we'll need a bigger office and we've got a tenant for the five bedroom apartment in the quadplex."

I had no idea what she meant and apparently neither did her boos. "Okay, what?" Santana said confusedly. I got the feeling she hated feeling like she was not in the loop.

"That really was Uncle Ethan. He is a junior partner at a very big and prestigious firm in St. Louis. Well, he was up for senior partner. Even with all the money and clients he has brought them…including US, they passed him over and went with a younger junior partner…a white guy. So Ethan is moving here to take care of us full time. He can easily build a client pool in entertainment and contract law when he already has a famous client."

I thought about it. "To be honest, most big entertainment lawyers only have a couple of big clients. Once you reach a certain level of stardom, you keep lawyers busy…very busy." I said honestly.

"How does Amanda feel about this move?" Puck asked his wife.

Mercedes smirked. "It was her idea. She hates the senior partners in that firm. She has said that they were racists for years. They made the decision yesterday and she is already set to interview at Columbia for the fall term. They apparently have an opening in their business department."

"Well, I mean this is your mom's younger brother the one with the little boy and the little girl that was born not long after we got here right?" When Mercedes nodded, Blaine continued. "Their kids are still really little, if they are going to make a big life change, now is the time." He pointed out helpfully. "And like Brantley mentioned, this could make it easier on him long term. Being half a country away from your client is doable now, but it would almost have to be easier for him to be here."

"Plus too, you've got two parts of your rental property filled and it isn't even finished yet." Brittany said helpfully.

Mercedes smiled and directed her attention back to the point she had been making earlier. "So we need enough space for Uncle Ethan, his legal secretary and a paralegal and he asked for a small conference room just for legal team meetings while they are still working on the whole ‘restrict TMZ and the Fox News set’ thing.

"Yeah, we're definitely going to have to buy. Renting that much space is almost guaranteed to cost more than buying will." Puck sighed.

"We'll need a space for a breakroom, even if it is just a small kitchenette with this many employees." Haja muttered.

I noticed that Puck was looking at all of us with a very intense look on his face. "I think we can afford this but I wanted to talk to you guys, umm, Artie can you call your mom…I'll get Saulie on the line too." After pleasantries had been exchanged and Mrs. Adams and Mr. Mayzer; yes I called them by their last names only…when they were ready for me to call them by their first names then I would…until then, they weren’t just my elders, they were pretty much my bosses too, they handled me getting paid; once they were brought up to speed with the goings on and conversation, Puck returned to his train of thought. "I know that we have asked Darcy to manage the fan mail that comes in, and she is got the email under control but Deborah told Bubbie that we get actual mailed in fan letters. While we are doing all this I'd like to purpose we get a space where we can have two or three part timers, maybe this could even be something we don't do salary, just a few regular college students’ part time job and they would answer snail mail with snail mail."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa…" Sam groaned. "Look, I'm not trying to be all bah humbug, but is now really the time for all of this? Can't we just…I don't know wait for a second…this is getting too big too quickly. I mean; we already have eighteen employees plus a business manager and like three or four lawyers and…God, what if we get all these people depending on us and then nobody buys our next album?"

Saul laughed. "Sam, I thought that we had settled the whole ‘what if we aren't successful' conversation the other night at Noah's birthday party…you guys are already successful. I promise, if your sophomore album tanks, I will pay all your employees salaries for another six months out of my own pocket. But it won't. I know you are scared. I would be if I were in your position. But Puck has a point. Right now you three are building your brand and building your own business within the larger music industry. If you can get the work out of your laps it leaves the three of you to concentrate on the music. That allows you time to make good music that people will continue to pay their money for. Those fan letters deserve answers, hire other people to answer them, or you are going to have to do it yourselves."

That seemed to calm Sam's freak out. I couldn't help but think that the freak out was totally understandable. They were very generous with their benefits packages and all of our salaries. But in any industry where you relied on the favor of the public you had to work to maintain their favor. So I chimed in to explain that to Sam. "Look, I understand your fears, but if someone takes the time to send you a fan letter, whether it is a real letter or an email and you send them a kind word with a bumper sticker or something else back…they will buy every single album that has your name on it. That is just human nature. You will have made them feel like they are important to you so they will continue to hold you as important to you. Unfortunately, you do not have time to do what a lot of bands do when they are building their following. You can't take a few hours every week and actually sign letters yourself. You can't take time every week to stuff, address and stamp envelopes…not because you don't want to, but because you don't have enough time. It would take several hours, every single day not just a few hours a week to keep up with your fan base. Puck's idea is a good buildable measure. Later when your fan base grows from merely big up to out and out huge, you can always hire more part timers and bump the part timers up to full timers if they so choose."

He looked like he was thinking about it. "Alright…Sorry for freaking out. My bad." He finally calmed. "If there is like a sick kid or a ‘your words comforted me during the worst of being bullied' letter, I think we should do those personally until they get to be too many."

We could all agree with that. Haja spoke up. "I actually wanted to talk with you all about that. I've been looking into it and I'd like to increase our merchandise offerings. I know that Darcy is offering them through the website and you are planning to sell that stuff on your festival tour this summer, but you are already almost out of the unisex tee-shirts, completely out of hoodies and ever since Perez Hilton showed the whole world the Vans, the fans are begging for their own pairs. I would like to add a set of women's tees, tanks and hoodies…I'd like to work with Brantley and we come up with a ‘Never let the KAMA go out of your life' bumper sticker and another one specifically for Necessity 4 Existence and we offer those through the site and as the insert in the returned fan mail."

We broke plans down that evening and from there shit snowballed. The next morning, Haja, Hudson and I met up and created KAMA's rider, which needed to be out to all their festival stops by the first of May. Within two weeks after that, we were touring spaces, with the specifics that Puck, Hudson and Mr. Mayzer had worked out. Mrs. Mills-Mayzer was one hell of a woman. She was beautiful, loyal, and damn she was determined. My feet were killing me half way through the first day, but she was unstoppable, and she did it all in heels. There were a few properties that Haja and I were cool with that she called a halt to. "If we don't find a place that has already been gutted, then we can come back and check these again. But the cost of gutting a place is an extra expense that will make Sam's head explode." She told us in one place. In another she pointed out that the security system was bullshit. "I know that we are planning on asking Rangeman to handle the security for the office, but the building security would be responsible for the common ways. Look at the back corridor to the garage, would you want to walk that late at night, let alone one of the girls."

We finally found three that she was cool with. Then came the walk throughs with Hudson and Mr. Mayzer with us. Finally, we were able to decide on a place in Chelsea that had been completely gutted, it had nice high ceilings and there was enough room for everything on the list including Mercedes' request for non-public restrooms. They would be small, one person at a time bathrooms, but we would have bathrooms we wouldn't have to share with anyone else. It was entire fifteenth floor of a thirty-five floor building…we'd even have the option to buy the sixteenth floor when that person's lease was up in twenty-sixteen. I doubted we would need to, but it was still a nice option to have. Puck, Saul and Ruth Mayzer and Ethan Harris did the negotiations. They got the place for one point five million under asking price. I have no idea how they managed that. I even asked Mercedes and Attorney Harris. They laughed and said that all three of the Mayzers smiled at the same time. I decided not to ask what they meant by that.

I assumed that the next step would be finding an architect, but we apparently already had one. Mills sent square feet and every single wall measurement possible off to Sam's dad and he sent us back a set of blueprints. Then Puck's dad sent us an electrician and a plumber and a contractor and construction crew. I have no idea how it all happened. But there were no set backs, no delays. Nothing. The decision to buy offices was made the week before what I learned was ‘Commune's anniversary'. The next morning, there were a whole bunch of infotainment broadcasts about them going out for a rare middle of the week night on the town. I had to say when they did it up, they did it up big. They went to a little French restaurant, one that CBS This Morning said was the same one at which they had been discovered. Then they went to an eighteen and under club and were met there by their housemates, the ones that they moved to New York with, and partied like the rock stars they were. The best part though was how many parents and even grandparents took to twitter to applaud the fact that their classmates all tweeted that they made it to class.

As I was saying, the decision was made on the Monday after Easter. We searched for the space for three weeks. We finally decided on the best place that would give us everything we needed and provide us room for growth the Monday after the kids finished their finals, just days before they loaded their entire band, including Artie who would be pinch hitting for Darcy in getting tons of pictures and videos from the road, and for Sam or Puck when they weren't playing. Considering that the kid could play a shit ton of instruments and knew all their songs, it was never a bad idea to carry him with them. The negotiations were finished and all the paperwork signed when KAMA came back to own for the Governor’s Ball Music Fest. They headed back out onto the road almost immediately thereafter. While they were gone we continued the work of getting the office ready. The permits came in on time. Rangeman's rep worked with our electrician and they got everything wired not just quickly but very, very well. We were wired for fiber optic cable internet and a hella complicated server and phone system room. They wired us up for at least one plug in on every wall and usually three on any wall without a window bank. The conference rooms were wired to handle projectors and skyped in conference calls. It was all state of the art. Once they were done the plumber came in and did their preliminary thing, manipulating the building's original plumbing system and augmenting it to fit with our design. Then we got hit by Hurricane Hummel…he and Haja were working together to do the cosmetic design of the office space. They were even getting paid extra for it since Kurt didn't actually work for them yet and commercial design was outside Haja's job description. Still they picked some gorgeous fixtures. Despite the fact that it was an office space, their choices, which were both sleek and modern, made it feel warm and inviting. They worked with me and with recently arrived Darcy to design our offices. They skyped with Attorney Harris and Hudson to design theirs.

Even as the office was under construction, I was still working on getting them gigs near the ones that had already been booked. When they were at a festival in Georgia, I was able to book them for an intimate concert at the historic Fox theatre. Despite very short notice; Darcy put the Tuesday night concert up on KAMA's page and tweeted it out, Haja used his connections at a few of the Atlanta radio stations; KAMA played to a packed house. Even at fifty bucks for the cheap seats there still wasn't a single seat left in the house. They were back in New York for the Governor's Ball Festival and they seemed really happy to sleep in their own beds for a few nights. While they were home, even as busy as they were, they still had me over so that we could discuss their summer schedule. The more I got the know Mercedes, Sam and Puck, the more determined I was to make sure that I did everything in my power to make them as long lasting and famous a band as The Rolling Stones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of their freshman year of college. My original plan was to have their whole college experience be one story...but I'm flexible. I can do Summer Menage III as a pull out like the Christmas and prom stories and then we resume this one with sophomore year. Or I could handle things like I did with their junior and senior years of high school.
> 
> The main reason that I kind of want to keep this a one big story with the summer and Christmas breaks pulled out might actually be because I have no IDEA what to call any subsequent Story Titles. Other than Les Ames Soeurs II and III and IV. I would like the series to culminate with their commitment ceremony, which will not take place until after they graduate college.
> 
> I want each of you that have an opinion to kick it in for me...let me know what you think I should do.
> 
> As always, I look forward to knowing what you think of the chapter.  
> Chime in on what you want to see happen in Summer Menage III
> 
> Oh and...  
> The face claim pictures are up at Illy&Anni.
> 
> TTFN,
> 
> Anni

**Author's Note:**

> THANKS to everyone who has taken the time to review! Your encouragement helps more than you know!


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